May I
by OmgItsPocky
Summary: "Mom... Ar-Are angels...Pink?"
1. Prologue

[ May I ]

"Get back here, you bastard!" He kept the empty beer bottle swinging around above his head as he ran after a little boy with an age about 6 or 7.

The small boy kept looking back and after realizing that he was still being chased, he continued running.

The man started hiccuping, his drunken state was not helping him to catch the boy so easily either. But unfortunately for the boy, he turned to the right and down the alley. In the end, he got trapped in a dead end with nowhere to run.

"Hehe… *Hic* You think you can *Hic* run away from me… You bastard…" The chaser grinned evilly, his face red from drinking too much beer. The terrified preteen knocked into one of the garbage bins and fell onto the hard floor, defenseless.

"You killed your own mother… MY WIFE! You jinx, *Hic* I am going to kill you… *Hic* And you think… *Hic * that I'll believe what she said? That you're my child? *Hic* You bastard…" The man slowly yet steadily approached the child, whose petrified pair of amber eyes staring back at the drunk man.

"No… Dad, Please don't…" His finally spoke before a huge and powerful kick hit across the little boy's jaw. The impact of the kick made the child flew across the alley and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

The boy slowly tried to pick himself up, but to find himself being trampled by his so-called father. His legs were right above the boy's body, pushing him down without mercy.

"I dare you to repeat what you call me. You have no *Hic* authority to fucking call me that!" The insane drunkard man raised his glass bottle and smashed the lower part into pieces against the wall. He brought the bottle closely towards the child's face.

"You have no, NO rights you got me? And you have no rights to tell me to stop either!" He hollered as he grabbed hold of the boy's tattered shirt and pulled him up before shoving him against the wall of the alley.

The helpless boy visibly tensed.

He forced his son to work, to pay for his gambling and beer money. Ever since the day when his wife died from giving birth to his and her child, he never acknowledged the red-haired as his son. Beating up him up seemed like a normal timetable in his life. Yet the poor boy never spoke about his abusive father to anyone. He always put up a brave front in front of everyone, keeping everything to himself.

Fighting and struggling alone, that was his own way of living.

After the final hit, the older one was finally satisfied as he smirked, dropping the boy down. New cuts and bruised began to appear on the redhead's arms and legs. Despite that, he still didn't make a sound, just like what his father wanted.

But his smirk disappeared and his satisfaction soon faded away. He seized the boy's shirt again, pulling him till up their eyes met. The little boy's chocolate-brown eyes wavered under the dark night, but he didn't struggle or fight back.

The boy witnessed the glass bottle raising above his head, and like a flash of lightning, it collided with the boy's head as his father released the grip on the boy's shirt. The glass bottle remained on its owner's hand, but it was dripping with fresh red blood.

The boy was flung onto the garbage bin fell onto the ground after being hit by the glass bottle. His head slowly went numb and he couldn't feel anything. No pain. Nothing.

His fluttered as darkness slowly enveloped him. The little boy tried to stand up, but he fell onto the floor for the umpteen time after he tried. The redhead used his hands and slowly touched the back of his head before looking at his blood-stained hand, his eyes widened in horror.

The man walked unstably and very slowly towards the injured child, as the boy wanted to escape again but he was too weak and tired to do so.

"Da-" He wanted to call his dad to stop, but right at that moment, he suddenly realized that no voice was coming out from his mouth. He tried again, trying to call out for his dad to stop all over again, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't.

Giving up, his eyes slowly shut away from this world…

* * *

_"Mom?" The child was suddenly in a very bright lit and warm place, somewhere he had never been on earth. Before he could speak again, he felt a fond embrace, an embrace he was looking for, for seven years._

_"I'm sorry, Sasori… It must be tough for you…" A soothing voice spoke, yet, he couldn't see the person who was talking at all. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you or love you like all the other mothers treat their child…" the voice continued._

_The boy was speechless, happy and grateful. He always wished for this day, to hear his mother's voice, to be in his mother's embrace. Yet, he never knew he must go through so much just to get something that every other child could easily have. _

_The small yet sincere hug continued to hold onto Sasori, refusing to let go. But in a few seconds time, the voice spoke again, in a sadder tone._

_"No matter what, I'll watch over you, protecting you, forever, and ever…" There was a pause in between before the voice spoke again._

_"Trust me. I'll be by your side just like an angel, always protecting you."_

* * *

The light slowly faded, and the crimson-haired boy went slowly back into the darkness he disliked. He felt cold and more red liquid was coming out from his head again.

"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?" An unfamiliar voice spoke. He used all his strength to open his eyes, trying to accommodate himself to the darkness around him. He squinted his swollen eyes and his gaze went over to the voice that called him back just now.

"You're awake! Can you hear me?" The voice spoke again, which was actually coming from a little girl. He opened his mouth and tried to reply, but no words came out. His eyelids became heavier and heavier, forcing him to shut himself away again. But before he was knocked out from consciousness, he could only thought to himself…

_'Mom... Ar-Are angels...Pink?'_

8:25am at a nearby Hospital

_'What... Where…am I…'_

His eyes slowly fluttered and he was staring at a white ceiling. His nut-brown eyes started to scan around the room. A huge machine was by his bed, beeping continuously.

He slowly sat up from his position, the warm blanket on him slid down from his shoulders. He stared at his surroundings in confusion as he cautiously reached over to touch the bandage on his head.

_'What happened…'_ He thought.

The young boy was about to speak to call for someone, but all he could do was to open his mouth and no voice came out, just like a sick goldfish. The child tried again, and he was shocked and stunned and wanted to know what was happening to him.

_'What…Why can't I speak?'_ He clutched onto both of his arms, feeling terribly afraid, cold and confused.

"He is badly injured, but we will have to go through further scans and tests once he wakes up." A male voice said. The injured boy raised his head and looked at the closed door. He could hear a faint yet clear conversation outside.

"That's good then…" Another unfamiliar voice spoke, but he was sure it was a female one.

"Mum, will he be alright?" Another voice spoke, but out of the three voices he heard, he recognized this particular one.

_"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"_

_"You're awake! Can you hear me?_

That's the same voice he heard last night, that fateful night…

"But there's bad news here…" The male voice said, which the patient thought might belong to a male doctor.

"The boy had actually lost his voice…"

There was a gasp outside the room after the doctor break the news.

The injured boy was stunned, not to say the least shocked, surprised and extremely upset. He had lost his voice.

He couldn't speak anymore…

"That damage on the head had caused his nerve system to prevent him the ability to speak. But luckily, he can still hear. An operation could allow him to speak again but nevertheless he is too young to go through the operation that is so risky. He could lose his life if there is any minor mistake during the surgery." The doctor continued.

The child's grip onto his blanket got tighter. _'Why couldn't that hit back just killed me and left me bleed to death? Why must I continue to live?'_ He thought.

_'Why…'_

"Dear, wait for me here, I'll go with the doctor to do some minor arrangements." The mature female voice spoke. After that he could hear the sound of their footsteps getting softer and softer, until there was no more.

"Click."

The boy raised his head again, to find himself staring at the little girl, pink locks covering her face as she popped her head into the patient's room. Her emerald eyes met his coffee-colored ones. The girl slowly entered the room, both hands were put behind her back as she slowly approached him.

But just a short distance could allow her to trip and fall over the wires of the machine.

"Ouchy…" The pink-haired girl rubbed her knee as she glanced at the redhead who was staring at her weirdly. "Heheh, sorry. I'm just a bit clumsy..." She rubbed the back of her head innocently, her face tinted pink.

She approached him closer and sat on the corner of the bed, looking at the injuries the boy had suffered.

"Mum said that your Daddy is arrested by the police, he's such a bad guy! He has injured you so much." She said angrily in a huff, crossing her arms in anger and glared at some random object on the small cabinet beside the bed. But then her eyes soon softened after her gaze moved to the injured boy once again.

He didn't respond or change his expression. All he does was just staring at his feet, deep in thought.

"Hey… You can hear me right?"

As he couldn't reply, he nodded in response.

_'He must be really upset… maybe I should cheer him up!' _The girl ruffled her bubblegum-colored hair and continued pondering until an idea struck her mind. She smiled as she sat closer to the boy.

"How 'bout introducing yourself? What's your name?" She asked. The boy lowered his head and all he did was open his mouth, no voice came out.

The girl said bit her lips sadly when she realized what she had said. She then looked around and went to the drawer. After pulling the first drawer, she found a pencil and two pieces of paper and took both of it out. She handed a piece to the boy.

"Why don't we write it down!" She said, with a bright smile across her face. She took the pencil and began writing on the paper.

'I like Pink, and you can call me anything but Pinky. I am 5 years old. My hair color is naturally pink. I like to eat ramen and anything with strawberry on it. I also like to play with my small and cute collectable furniture set! My dream is to become a furniture designer!' She wrote on the piece of paper and handed the pencil to him.

"Here! It's your turn." She said. The redhead stared at the blank piece of paper, not sure what to write. "You can go just according to how I write if you don't know how to..." The girl responded.

'I like red, and I don't have any nicknames. I am 7 years old. My hair color is naturally red. I don't have any favorite food or any hobbies. My dream…' He stopped there while looking at the girl.

"Don't you have any dream? Like you want to become a lawyer, a teacher or anything?" She asked. He shook his head in response.

She took the paper and looked at him with her two bored looking eyes. "First, you have a very nice handwriting and second, you sure are boring…" She commented as the patient shrugged.

"Oh yeah, I've forgot the most important part." She said as she took the pencil and wrote down.

'My name is: Har-'

"Snap!"

The lead of the pencil broke off. The innocent pink-haired girl looked at the pencil and smiled sheepishly again. "Hehe, never mind, my name is actually Haru-"

"Hey little sweetheart, could you come out for a while? The doctor wants to check on the boy now." Her mother made a hand gesture, indicating her to come out of the room. She nodded while she jumped of the bed and looked back at the boy for the final time.

"Take care! I guess we will meet again!" She waved, heading towards the door obediently.

As both mother and daughter were waiting for the lift, the small girl then spoke. "Mum, what will happen to him after he recovers? Why don't we ask him to stay with us?" She asked her mother.

"Sakura dear, I will certainly do but I'm afraid your father will not allow it…" Her mother said.

Sakura stared disappointedly at her feet as they entered the lift together, "but don't worry Sakura. I have a good friend. She is actually working as a counselor that helps these poor children and I am sure she can help him much more than what we can do for him." The girl's bright green eyes soon lighted up.

"He'll be fine, right?" She asked again. She didn't know why but she just wanted to protect the poor boy from any further harm.

"I'm very sure." Her mother patted her on the head as they left the lift, "he'll be well."

0o0

"I'll refill the jug of water for you." The nurse said, walking out of the door. The check up was done and other then his disability to speak, he had no other serious injuries.

He looked at the small table before pulling the first drawer out. The broken lead and the pencil was replaced with a new one by the nurse. The two sheets of paper which the girl had left were still inside.

He slowly took it out, glancing at the paper. He gently placed the paper on his lap. The beeping from the machine beside him never stopped.

_'If my angel were to fall, I'll catch her with both of my hands.'_

_To be continued_

* * *

Author's Note:

I disclaimed everything from this chapter onwards. I do not own Naruto or anyone in this story

Yesh, my lovable pairing SasoSaku. I've thought a lot about it and came up with this . I don't know if all of you would like it but I've put in many effort on this story to share the SasoSaku love with everyone. You can criticize my story or anything you want. Criticism is the only thing that can make me better and know where I can improve on. Please R&R


	2. The email

[ May I ]

_There you stand opened heart – opened doors_

"What are you doing, Ino?" A voice called as the pink-haired girl approached the busy-looking blonde, who was typing some stuff in her computer seriously.

"I am filling in a job application." She replied

"But I thought you have a job as a florist at one of the flower shops?" The other asked again, keeping her bright green eyes fixed on the wood she was using to make a small immobile car.

"It's not for me." Her friend said as she turned the computer towards the busy girl who was still turning the screw. "It's for you, Sakura." She pointed at the screen.

"Haruno Sakura, twenty fi-" Sakura abruptly stopped reading and looked at Ino. "I can find a job by myself, thank you very much! I don't need your help!" She cried out stubbornly. She stood up and walked away from her seat. Her blonde friend walked towards her.

"Miss Haruno, must I remind you of something? You have been jobless for the past month!" Ino pointed out.

Sakura then placed the wooden car on her glass table before pouring herself a drink.

"Well… it's just that the people out there have no fortune to find such a talent like me! So just wait for a while, and someone will hire me. And they will not regret it. Ever." Sakura said as she gulped down the entire drink in one shot and wiped her mouth with the back of her palm.

"If I remembered a few months ago, there was a girl that said something like that before, just as confident as you. And a few months later, she was jobless, just like you. Doesn't she sound familiar?" Ino stroked an invisible beard on her chin leaning onto the kitchen table before staring suspiciously at Sakura.

"Oh wait, that was you." Ino pointed at the jobless girl.

"But the last job, I just didn't like it! Not that I am judging you or anything, but the last job you helped me get was just sitting on a chair, typing on a keyboard and running through boring files. Calculating some crazy, alien numbers, and hearing the stupid printer printing out sheets and sheets of paper. I couldn't stand such boring life." Sakura argued.

"I want to have a job I like, Ino…" Sakura sighed. She went back to the sofa and sat down, followed by her best friend. "The problem is, you have not finished hearing what job I'm applying you for." Ino smirked. Sakura then looked at Ino and a glimpse of hope seemed to appear in her emerald eyes.

"Last night, I was running through some random website, and I've found out that someone was hiring… A carpenter, something like a furniture designer! And I was hoping to give you a surprise since I knew you would love this job, but oh well…" Ino then put a hand on her mouse and moved it to the red button with a cross.

"And since someone is so ungrateful, and doesn't let me help her get a job, maybe I should just delete this job application…" Ino said dragging her sentence, pretending to sound hurt and upset.

"T-they are hiring wha-what…? Really!" Sakura yelled and quickly rushed to Ino's side fighting for a place with a good view of the laptop's screen.

"Why didn't you say earlier? I was looking for this type of job like mad everywhere! And when I find one and send the application, the job is already taken or some other weird reason!" Sakura said hugging her best friend so hard Ino had to fight for breath.

"Oh My God, I love you Ino!" the pinkette said.

"Alright, alright!" Ino said as they broke their hug.

"You shouldn't thank me yet, if we don't get back a reply, all the chance is gone." Ino moved her mouse to the 'Send' button. The overjoyed Sakura quickly pressed the button and gave a huge heavy sigh, like she was in love.

Even though… She already was.

0o0

"Ding!" A small box appeared at the bottom right hand corner of the laptop's screen.

"Hey, another job application, yeah." A blonde began to open the e-mail he had just received.

"I don't need any help you know…" Another voice spoke, followed by the continuous sound of a wood being shaved professionally.

"Well, I don't want to go down the stairs to pick up calls, and you don't want to be interrupted either. You also have two jobs to do, painting and crafting these woods. So let's hire a worker to do the picking up calls and helping you craft some of the woods when you are loaded with the jobs, un?" He continued, while playing with his clay.

"I'm the one who is loaded with works, not you, and thus it wouldn't affect you if we hired one or not. So if I say I don't need one, it means we really don't need one." The voice stubbornly said again. "Fine, what about the answering of the calls, un?" The blonde suggested as he placed his clay down and began to scroll down the email.

"Haruno Sakura…" He said.

"It's a girl, so skip her." The other said as he walked towards the other room, deciding to change his equipment for work.

"You are really sexist. This is the 5th one already... Well, I don't care. Her name sounds interesting." He said as he looked for further information in the mail.

The redhead walked out of the room and sat on his chair again. "She went overseas and studied about design and technology, maybe we should give this girl a try, and you could find yourself a girlfriend too, Sasori." His friend laughed and played with his clay again.

"Please speak for yourself, Deidara." Sasori said as he started sanding the wood.

"Fine. We could give this girl a try, not like it would hurt or anything. If she's bad, I'll fire her. Immediately." He responded. Deidara then turned, brushing away the yellow bangs that covered his eyes.

"Finally you agreed! Gosh, our burden will be so much lesser, yeah!" Deidara said.

"I thought she would be working for ME only?" Sasori stopped and looked suspiciously at his partner.

"Well, she might also take interest in my art too… And you know, painting is easy, so you don't need much help either…yeah." Deidara smiled innocently.

"If painting is easy, why don't you try and I'll let you take charge of painting all the wood and clay pieces? Then we could avoid hiring anyone. I can even volunteer to pick up the calls." Sasori said.

"Fine, un!" Deidara muttered, "Well, we can interview her tomorrow morning. Don't be late yeah." Deidara said.

"Are you telling yourself? When have I ever been late?" Sasori argued.

"Well, I'm just reminding you, you can't predict the future, can you?" Deidara smiled as he was typing in the suitable date and time for the interview. And with a click, the message was sent.

"Ahhh, I'm going out to buy lunch, what do you want, yeah?" Deidara stood up and stretched; his body was full of cramps and sores as they had stayed overnight to complete their project on time.

"Just buy anything edible." Sasori said in monotone.

Deidara nodded, opened the door and left. Sasori could hear the slow footsteps down the stairs and a stiffed yawn outside the room. After a few incidents like this; staying overtime just to complete a project, Deidara had decided to hire someone to lighten their burden.

Sasori placed the wood on the table and walked towards the computer. He went back to the inbox and viewed the job application sent by the girl that Deidara had decided to interview; along with himself.

"Haruno Sakura…" Sasori muttered. The two words kept repeating in his mind, as though this name was someone he knew. He then sunk into the chair deeper and deeper, like it was going to suck him in. He closed his eyes as his mind started drifting off somewhere.

0o0

"There's an email!" Ino said. Sakura began to rush to her feet after placing her ramen cup on the glass table. "You're in! They have appointed an interview with you for tomorrow!" Ino cried out. She skimmed through the email and told her friend the details. Sakura shrieked and jumped of joy.

"This is going to be my best and last job!" Sakura punched her fist into the air, feeling rather determined suddenly.

"Hey, why don't I pick you up and go to the interview place with you instead?" Ino suggested.

"Since you might wake up late and you don't have a car. Hailing a taxi is too risky. We don't want you to be late" Ino continued.

Sakura nodded and grabbed her friend's hand. "I have to tell this to Sasuke, I know he'll be happy for me!" Sakura said, sitting down on the sofa, staring dreamily out of the window and viewing the magnificent view on the busy street.

"Oh, yeah. For once I have actually forgotten that you have a boyfriend." Ino muttered before continuing.

"He hasn't even asked you out, called you or sms-ed you like a boyfriend should for two days!" Ino yelled.

"He's really busy lately. So that's why I'll tell him tomorrow about my job." Sakura mumbled innocently.

"And, let's forget about this." Sakura said, trying to avoid the subject while she pulled her best friend to her bedroom wardrobe.

"Help me Ino! What should I wear tomorrow?"

_To be continued_

* * *

A rather short chapter, but a brand new start for those two... Please review! Review means love, love means inspiration, inspiration means update! I would gladly appreciate all reviews thrown at me. I don't care! I need them for improvement for my future chapters and stories!

-Pocky


	3. Their meeting

[ May I ]

_Full of life with the world that's wanting more._

"So instead of choosing the clothes I'm suppose to wear tomorrow… We are buying clothes." Sakura said as she stared at all the shopping bags in her hand.

"You need new clothes Sakura." Ino said as she began to rushed to another window and stared memorizing at a bright pink dress as Sakura rushed behind her. "You can't wear those that are in your cabinet, you might give them bad impression." Ino said as she pulled Sakura into the shop she was just looking at.

"I'm there for an interview, not a fashion model." Sakura pointed out while she allowed herself to be pulled by her blonde friend, even though she seemed to enjoy the last minute shopping which they had planned three hours ago.

Placing down her shopping bags, the blonde took one of the clothes and rushed to the mirror while staring at the mirror and admiring the dress. "This is gorgeous! I'm so going to try this!" Ino shrieked as she quickly rushed into the fitting room. Sakura rolled her eyes, as she sat down on one of the seats outside of the room that Ino just went in.

And how does Ino had the money to buy all these clothes everyday? Oh, her father left her a huge sum of money before he left for a long vacation to enjoy his retirement, but Ino loved flowers, thus even if she had the money to spend for the rest of her life, she went to get a job as a florist at one of the flower shop in town.

But what about Sakura? Her Mom and Dad were in another foreign country working on their oversea business. They always sent money back as her monthly allowance and the amount could actually last her for a few months instead of one, so she could actually shop every single day. But instead, she wanted to be like her best friend, find a job and actually grow independently and lead a…

Peaceful life…

"Sakura! How does this look?" Ino asked as she turned around to let her friend to give some comment.

"It's beautiful…" Sakura said as she looked as her best friend was smiling back and lifted her dress up to reveal her high heels.

"I'm buying!" Ino mentioned, for the 10th time consecutively when they were in other shops too.

After tugging her best friend out of the shop and into the busy night at the street, her phone rang as she fumbled for her ringing phone and finally found it as she answered it swiftly.

"Hello? Ino's here!" Ino said chirpily. Sakura smiled for that, her friend was just too awesome and hyper for that. "What? What did you say? I'll be right back!" Ino yelled in the middle of the street as a few passers-by stared at her weirdly while they were walking by the two.

Ino quickly ended the call as Sakura looked worriedly at her friend. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"The flower shop have been robbed, and the owner was actually hurt when the robber was taken place, I have to go and check it out." Ino said as she grabbed onto her friend's arm. "I'm sorry Sakura but I can't take you home, I've to go for now." Ino said as she quickly headed for her car park after Sakura nodded, indicating that she understood.

0o0

Sasori felt a vibration in his pocket as he reached into his pocket and fished out his phone while browsing through some books at a bookstore. After looking at who was calling him, he answered it.

"What is it Deidara."

"Hehe, Sasori… I've forgotten to tell you that there's a document that Mr. Nara wants you to go through and he wanted a respond by tomorrow morning yeah, I've send the document to your email." Deidara said innocently and Sasori could already picture him rubbing the back of his head for his carelessness.

"Right." Sasori closed the book at placed it back onto the shelf as he gave a sigh. "We really need another worker…" Sasori muttered while Deidara spoke behind his phone.

"What did you say yeah?"

Sasori walked out of the shop and into the busy street. "Nothing, I'm hanging up right now." Sasori said as digged into his pocket to search for his car keys, in realization that he had actually parked his car at one of the petrol station to get it fixed.

He turned and walked towards the pavement of the street in search for a cab, when he finally found one as he quickly went forward to grab the handle, but to his surprise, there was another girl fighting for the same cab too.

Their eyes met, Green versus Brown,.

"Can you get your hands away from my cab?" Sakura ordered.

"Sorry? Your cab? I've actually seen it first." Sasori remarked.

"I'd seen it first, it's just that arms are longer than me, and you've reached it first and-"

"Yes, I've reached it first so buzz off." Sasori said but Sakura refused to budge.

"Didn't you heard of ladies first?" Sakura growled. That was when Sasori became quiet as he looked at her pink hair, frowning.

"W-what What's with my hair, never seen a pink-haired woman before?" Sakura yelled. Sasori then looked back into her green orbs.

"Not really, but it's interesting to see a pink-haired lady with a few strands of white hair right in the middle." Sasori replied casually.

Sakura immediately released her grip on the door handle and reached out for her pink locks. "WHAT?" Sakura shrieked. The redhead smirked as he pulled the door and quickly got in, which made Sakura awfully surprise.

"Yah, Ladies sure gets white hair first." Sasori said as he slammed the door shut as the cab went off right in front of her.

"He's! ARGH!" Sakura stomped her foot onto the ground. "I hate these kind of stupid jerks!" Sakura angrily yelled as she walked further down the streets, and while passing by some huge mirrors that were right outside of a fashion accessories shop, she stopped at stared at herself.

"There's no white hair… right?"

0o0

"I can't get over that! I just can't!" Sakura gritted through clenched teeth as her hand turned into a fist and stared angrily forward. 'If I can punch him right now…" Sakura said as she smirked, picturing the event happening in her mind.

Ino stepped onto her pedal once the red light turned green as they went full speed ahead. "Geez, it's just a cab, Forehead." Ino said as she turned left towards the petrol station, "Anyway Sakura, let me get some gas pumped. There's still time." Ino said.

Sakura nodded as they approached to the petrol station before Sakura asked Ino about the robber incident.

"Oh, the owner was alright, but weirdly, the robber didn't take anything, not the money or anything at all. Perhaps he escaped before he steal anything. The police are still investigating." Ino replied, Sakura stroked her invisible chin " I wonder… this is a suspicious case…" They then came to a halt.

"Don't act as a police when you can't." Ino said as she get of the car to get some petrol into her car. Sakura sat in the car patiently as she look at her watch, "thirty more minutes…" Sakura gulped. She suddenly felt nervous for the interview without a reason.

"Maybe I should get a candy bar before heading to the interview, that should somehow calm me down…" She said as she pushed the door opened without noticing someone was right outside.

0o0

"Thank you." Sasori said as he paid for the petrol and the repairs of his car at the cashier counter before approaching out. Just then, a blonde girl walked past him and towards the cashier while he walked out of the store.

After taking a sip from his hot coffee, he started searching for his key in his pocket and once he found it, he fished it out, yet accidentally dropped it onto the floor. As he bent down to pick it up and stood up, a car door which was just beside him swung open without a care in the world.

And a wham, the enjoying-coffee was over.

The door had knocked Sasori's cup of coffee onto his shirt as he looked down his stained shirt with two wide eyes. He slowly looked up to find a familiar pink-haired girl.

Sakura got off the car to find that she had knocked over a guy with coffee and spilled it all over him. She exclaimed in horror.

"I'm so so sorry!" She bowed several times, finding it weird when the person she had accidentally knocked into didn't respond.

She slowly raised her head, as the first thing she saw was the same red hair with the same chocolate-colored eyes she met yesterday night.

It was that _Jerk_.

"You!" Sakura pointed a finger at the redhead.

"Oh, it's you." Sasori calmly said, even though the coffee was all over him.

"You…" Still didn't got over the incident yesterday, she looked at the stain on his shirt and then glared right in the eye as she shouted. "Serve you right!" She immediately stepped onto his foot with her high heels.

And sometimes, she doesn't know her strength…

His brown eyes widened as he bent down and grabbed onto his foot in pain before glaring at her. "You...brat!"

Right at that moment, Ino walked out of the store and approached to her car and Sakura quickly shouted.

"Ino! Get in!"

Sakura quickly opened the door and Ino; who didn't know what was happening and just got into the car like what her best friend told her too. Within a few seconds, they sped off, leaving the redhead holding onto his leg and groaning in pain.

0o0

"Gosh! What on earth happened?" Ino said as she was driving towards the address that the email had sent them. Sakura was grabbing on her skirt as she looked at Ino.

"I didn't know why I was acting like that either, I was so angry and I just stepped onto his foot without thinking… and all I know was to escape." Sakura said.

"Who was that?" Ino calmly asked.

"That redhead who I spoken about, I can't believe I met him again." Sakura sighed as she stared outside of the window.

"Count yourself unlucky then, what if you really met him again." Ino laughed.

"No way! I couldn't possibly meet him again…" Sakura said as her voice became hoarse, "Could I…" Sakura gulped, she felt uneasy all of the sudden.

Ino then turned into the car park as they came to a halt, Sakura got of the car and took a deep breath. "You know the address right?" Ino asked and Sakura nodded. " I've told Hinata that we shall meet up and get lunch after your interview, I'll wait for you outside after your interview." The blonde winked and gave a thumbs up.

"Everything's going to be great!" Ino said.

"I hope so…" Sakura walked out of the car park as Ino was finding a spot to park her car.

Sakura slowly approached to the office that the address was given as she stood outside the glass door. She had an interview a few months ago for her previous job and she was not that tense, yet, she just couldn't stop herself from being nervous right now.

"Damn that redhead, if only I got a candy bar… Maybe I should get a candy bar!" Sakura smiled contently as she turned and walked down the steps and towards the busy road, to actually find someone that she thought she would never see again.

It was that guy Sakura met earlier.

He was using a tissue and rubbing the stubborn stain off his shirt as he shut his car door and slowly approached the same direction towards Sakura, yet he did not seem to notice the girl at all.

"Oh my G-" Sakura immediately put her hand over her mouth, "I can't let him see me!" She quickly entered the office without thinking anything else other than escaping from him.

The bell that was hanging at the corner of the door chimed as a blonde head popped out of the kitchen. Sakura stared at the blonde who then walked out of the kitchen while stirring his coffee and smiled at her. "Haruno Sakura, I suppose!" He called out.

Sakura straightened herself as she combed her short hair with her fingers and bowed. "Ah... Good morning!" She smiled back.

"I'm Deidara! Come on in!" Deidara handed a packet of drink and Sakura thankfully accepted it before glancing around the room.

The first floor was very simple, with light blue wallpaper and a kitchen at the corner of the room, and in the middle of the first floor, there was a desk with a few messy file and a few organized file. It really seemed that there were two different people who were the boss of the company.

The desk also had a laptop and a telephone at the corner, taking a last look, Sakura followed Deidara up the stairs that was allocated right beside the glass door; which was the entrance.

They reached the second floor, there were two rooms along the corridor, but Sakura didn't have a chance to view the other room as Deidara pushed the glass door and allowed Sakura to enter.

There were many shelves; one was filled with different books with lots of different sizes. Another shelf was filled with all sorts of different colour of clay, but mostly all the clay was in white.

Another small shelf that was filled with files, another bigger shelf was filled with different kind of small wood models; houses, chairs, tables, all coated with colorful colors.

Right in the middle of the huge room, there was two desks but were both separated. One desk had a stationary holder filled with pencils and paintbrush, a stack of organized file, and a laptop at the corner of the desk.

There was another desk that was messy, yet the different clay models were aligned neatly and nicely on the table, with another laptop on the table.

There was a huge window, which was just behind the two desk, which could view the busy streets outside of the office. Sakura took a glimpse of the amazing view before following Deidara to a round glass table, allocated at the corner of the room.

They both pulled out the chairs and sat down before Sakura shyly looked around while Deidara placed his cup and Sakura placed her untouched drink on the table. "This room is actually the main room. We do mostly everything here though, yeah." Deidara said as Sakura nodded in response, her eyes were fixated at another huge room, which was actually also in the same room they were in. Sakura assumed that the room might be he storeroom.

Noticing what Sakura was staring at, Deidara spoke. "That room would be the wood project area room, where you can actually all the equipments of sawing, sanding cutting, anything to do with wood making was all inside.

Sakura eyes glittered as her eyes were glued to the room, "I'm not in charge of it, so I can't really show you right now, yeah." Deidara said. Sakura felt a little disappointed that she couldn't see the amazing machines and equipment that could be found inside, but she knew that she could touch them one day.

"Well, as I was saying you wanted a job as a furniture designer here, as I have said, the wood stuff are all inside. And I'm not in charge of these; instead, I'm in charge of clays, yeah." Deidara paused before continuing. "And I couldn't actually decide much as I wasn't actually-"

"Ding ling ling!"

The familiar bell at the door chimed again and both of them looked at the glass transparent door as they could hear the sound of steps approaching. "Aha, he said he wouldn't be late… and he was…" Deidara laughed.

Sakura just gulped in anticipation.

"If he actually accepts you in, I can tell you a whole LOT of stuff to be alert off. Then you wouldn't pissed him off and he wouldn't fire you, yeah." Deidara winked.

The door opened as a man who was holding a file in his hand, while the other was wiping some sort of stain on his shirt came in. His chocolate-brown eyes glanced across the room before landing at the two who were sitting at the round glass table at the corner of the room.

"That's Sasori, the other boss of the company-"

A gasp interrupted Deidara before he could finish his sentence. Deidara looked at Sakura, puzzled. The blonde then looked at the redhead who placed his file on the neat table before approaching the glass table, slowly.

And that few steps, it was torturing Sakura to the max.

"Oh, so this is Haruno Sakura, the new employee that you decide to interview, isn't it?" Sasori said as he pulled out a chair and sat right beside Sakura, his eyes continued to stare at the nervous girl who was shifting uncomfortably. She grabbed the drink, poking the small hole with the straw and started drinking it slowly.

"What happened to you yeah?" Deidara said as he pointed at the stain on his shirt.

"Oh? This stain? It was nothing, just pure accident." Sasori said as he looked at Sakura again. Her eyes were staring under the table, afraid to look up.

"So, she's Haruno Sakura yeah-"

"I'm hiring her." Sasori interrupted the blonde's sentence again.

"What? Yesterday you were complaining that I shouldn't and now…" Deidara looked at his friend while Sakura slowly raised her head up, continuing drinking from her straw as her eyes met the redhead ones.

Sasori suddenly stood up which surprised Sakura. He just shrugged at the question Deidara asked but then the redhead finally gave a reply.

"Yesterday, I was reading about this fantastic book on _1001 ways how to torture your own workers_, so I've decide to try that out."

Sakura choked.

_To be continue_

* * *

In future chapter, the chapters might be like this long, or a little bit lesser, so yeah :D And if there is any grammar mistake, I'm really sorry, currently in a rush here.  
And could I know again, am I writing Sakura and Sasori OOC? Or is it okay? Please review!


	4. Her light

[ May I ]

_But I can see when the lights start to fade._

"Are you alright yeah?" Deidara immediately grabbed a tissue and handed it to Sakura who gladly accepted it. She just continued chocking while Sasori had walked away from the two of them.

Sasori fitted the keys into his project's room door and entered, switching on the lights and closing the door behind him without taking another look at his new employee. Deidara sighed as Sakura tried to avoid making eye contact with the blonde.

"I can't believe he just hired you. You are not bad, but yesterday he was complaining how troublesome an employee is and bla bla bla yeah." Deidara frowned and turned to the pinkette. "Do you guys somehow know each other?"

"Somehow, I met him yesterday, spilled coffee on him this morning and stepped on his foot." Sakura gave an awkwward smile. "Hey… he wouldn't hold any grudge right?" Sakura asked innocently while Deidara stared doubtfully at Sakura.

"I don't know…" Deidara lied, inwardly knowing the truth. Sakura just sighed.

"Well! Perhaps you can go now, I'll talk to him later and you can start work tomorrow." Deidara stood up from his seat and approached to his desk. Sakura followed him while he was scribbling some stuff on a sticky note.

"Just clocked in here every 9 in the morning, and here are the keys." Deidara pulled out one of his drawer and handed the keys to Sakura, who immediately took it without hesitation.

"This is my number, if you need anything just give me a call." Deidara pasted the sticky note onto Sakura's hand and spoke. "When you got here tomorrow, I'll tell you what to do; the files, phone calls and etc" Deidara then stared at the closed door. "And to talk about what your other boss dislikes, hates and well, I don't think he likes anything so there's nothing to take note of." The blonde said while Sakura took the sticky note from her hand and stared at it dumbly.

"Thank you!" Sakura bowed a few times before looking down at her feet and slightly glanced at the wooden door that Sasori had entered, Deidara noticed it as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry! As long as I'm here, he won't do anything to you." Deidara smiled as Sakura looked at Deidara with a surprised look.

Realizing he had just said that his friend sound like a lecher, he immediately waved his hand in the air. "That's not what I meant yeah, I mean he would not torture you by doing tons of work or anything yeah." Deidara clumsily said.

Sakura gave an "Oh…" before bowing again.

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity! I'll come here on the dot tomorrow!" Sakura said before walking down the stairs and out of the office building on her own.

Sakura gave a huge sigh as she looked up to see the huge glass where she had viewed before when she was at the second floor.

"Forehead!" Ino shouted as her blonde friend surprised her and she directed her attention to her friend instead.

"Hinata is waiting! Let's go!" Ino pulled Sakura away without letting her to speak another word. They walked down a few coffee shop before stopping at one and entered.

Ino excitedly waved and a long, dark blue haired girl waved back and smiling. Sakura immediately smiled after noticing her friend, her stress from the previous _encounter_ was gone.

"Hinata!" Sakura said as she pulled her chair, along with her blonde friend and sat down. Hinata politely called a waiter and her two friends just ordered coffee for their tea break.

Hinata was Sakura and Ino's best friend since they were in elementary school, it was the two friends that had brought the confidence into the timid and shy girl, encouraging her to speak more without stuttering as much in a sentence and looking into someone's eyes with confidence then being shy about it.

"So Sakura, I knew it. Forget it then I can help you find another job for you." Ino said as the waiter left with their orders while Sakura gave her a puzzled look. "Ino is right, d-don't' be disappointed, I can help you if to find one too…"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sakura asked.

"You don't have to hide any longer forehead, I know you are pretty upset because you can't get the job." Ino said as she gave a fake sigh and pat Sakura's back as comfort.

"I did get the job… Pig." Sakura said after thanking the waiter who placed the tow cups of coffee on the table and left. "You did?" Ino said, filled with surprise.

"Congratulations Sakura! I know you can did it when you told me about your job yesterday." Hinata smiled. Ino smirked as she sipped her hot coffee.

"Then why do you look so sad? Like you just dropped your last penny in the middle of a shopping spree." Ino questioned.

"Do I?" Sakura asked and Hinata nodded. The pinked haired woman gave a sigh as she responded. "Ino, guess what? My boss is actually that redhead who I spilled the coffee on and stepped on his foot on purpose…" Sakura whined.

"Se-Serious?" Ino almost shouted, gaining a few of the costumer's attention before she waved her hands in embarrassment and looked at Sakura. "But why did he still recruit you?" Ino said.

"Luckily, he wasn't the only boss, I seem to have another supporter to back me up though. But that jerk actually agreed to hire me." Sakura bit her lips as she suddenly thought back about the incident a while ago.

"His face just tells me he's nothing but giving me a hell of a life." Sakura tiredly answered as she rest her heavy head on the palm of her hands and the elbow was rest on the table.

"Then why did you agree to it?" Ino asked, not believing that her best friend was so into this job even when she had to cooperate with someone she doesn't want to meet in her life.

"If I refused the job just because of him, I'm wasting an opportunity! And if I just back down, he'll just look down on me." Sakura sternly said.

Hinata took another sipped on her hot chocolate before asking. "Would you quit your job if you find one m-more suitable?"

"Depends…" Sakura shrugged before finally taking a sip of her coffee. While holding onto her mug, she stared at her reflection on the surface of the coffee and smiled. "This is great!"

"Of course." Ino proudly said while Sakura rolled her eyes and Hinata stifled a giggle.

There was a vibration in Sakura's pocket as Hinata and Ino were discussing about something else. Sakura fished into her pocket and answered the call immediately.

"Hello? This is Haruno Sakura."

"Hey Sakura."

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out in the phone. She had been longing for her boyfriend's voice for so long.

Ino and Hinata stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the lady who was speaking.

"Sakura, you don't have to be so loud." Sasuke said as Sakura immediately clumped her mouth and gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Anyway Sasuke, why did you call for?" Sakura mumbled.

"Do I need to have a reason to call you?" Sasuke said, his voice seemed to be pretending to sound hurt while Sakura giggled before he continued. "It's been a long time since we are together and I was wondering if you want to have dinner with me this evening."

"I would love too!" Sakura beamed.

"Alright then, I'll pick you at 7, bye." They both hang up their call before Ino gave a look at Sakura.

"Hinata, look at our dear Sakura, she just had her personality changed 360 degree when she was JUST talking to her boyfriend." Ino said boredly.

"Hinata, look at our dear Ino, who was just jealous because she doesn't have a boyfriend." Sakura copied the way Ino spoke while the blonde tried to hit her as the pinkette quickly dodged.

Hinata laughed as she placed the back of her hand over her mouth to control her laughter.

"All right guys, let's just celebrate that Sakura got a job okay?" Hinata said before the only female who wasn't quarreling at each other, asked for the waiter and placed their order again.

0o0

Sasori exited his room as he went to his desk and scribbled some stuff onto his notes, completely ignoring to the guy who was standing before him behind his desk.

"Sasori… Seriously what's with you and the book on "1001 ways on how to torture your own workers" thing yeah?" Sasori finally looked up at Deidara before giving him a sigh.

"I didn't want to recruit any workers, and you are complaining, now I've just agreed to recruit one, you are also complaining. Deidara, what am I suppose to do then?" Sasori asked.

"Well, she's just a girl who spilled coffee on you…" Deidara's eyes glanced onto the stained shirt that Sasori was still wearing.

"And stepped on you on purpose, that's all yeah." The blonde happily said.

"Fine, I won't do anything to her. As long as she doesn't creates trouble for. Me." Sasori said as he stick the sticky note on the side of his table.

"You're a great man who doesn't torture your workers on their first day right? That's great! So now, let's celebrate then." Deidara clapped his dirty hands that were stained with clay that he was using a while ago.

"Celebrate what? Celebrate that I just agreed to hire a worker who spilled coffee and stepped on me?" Sasori stared at him.

"Erm… let's just… never mind, since you just agreed not to make things difficult for her that's alright, un." Deidara said before continuing making his clay as Sasori closed his file that he had looked through.

After looking at the file that he just closed for the last time, he began glancing at the sticky note that he had placed on the side of the table, he took out the sticking note and stick it on the white file, before placing it inside his drawer.

0o0

Sakura stood right outside her house, waiting patiently for her date to come. She wore a light pink dress up to her knew with two small ribbons by her sleeve and white laces at the bottom of her dress.

Not long, Sakura was sitting right beside Sasuke's car and on to one of the famous restaurant in town. They kept some minor talking while Sasuke was mostly focusing on his driving while Sakura just gazing outside of the window, staring at nothing.

After parking into his lot, he got of his car and opened the door for Sakura, who gladly accepted his gratitude and stepped out of the car while holding hands with him into the restaurant.

Sakura could felt glares from jealous girls looking by their way, and she love it actually. It just gave the only sense of security in her that Sasuke was her boyfriend, and their relationship would never stop just because of these envious stares.

Right after they had ordered their food, Sasuke started a few mild conversation and Sakura tried her very best to keep the conversastaion between the two of them alive and going. She knew Sasuke was very stress with his work, so she tried to talk about things that could help Sauske rest his mind instead of thinking about his work.

Often in between talks, Sakura would catche a few jealous glances from girls beside their table and a thought soon clouded her mind.

Many girls loved Sasuke as much as she does; his looks, his family background, his attitude, just everything about him made her fallen for him even more. Not only just her, everyone other girls wanted him because of the same reasons she gave.

But why did he, Sasuke Uchiha, actually fell for this clumsy girl with pink hair?

"I've actually got a job, I'm starting tomorrow." Sakura started a new topic.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows, "It's been a month since you didn't have a job, what's wrong? Did you have some finance problems?" Sasuke asked.

"No no, I'm great, it's just that I couldn't always stayed at home staring at the television and shopping all day, I have to actually get a job and lead a life like all the other girls." Sakura explained. Sasuke nodded, indicating that he understood while he spoke again.

"So how was your boss? Is he terrifying or some miser who cheats on their workers?" Sasuke asked in concern.

"Oh, he's perfectly fine, and a great boss too!" Either Sakura was lying through her teeth or she was actually referring to Deidara only. "And the job was actually my dream job, so nothing is going to happen." Sakura assured with a smile.

"If there's anything wrong, just tell me, I'll could find a job that is a hundred times better."

Soon, their food arrive as their conversation were just cut off while they silently eat their food before Sasuke suddenly spoke, which actually caught Sakura by surprise.

"Next Saturday, my brother is having an engaged party at our house and I would like you to come too. It would be a very huge party…" Sasuke muttered, he seeming a little nervous to ask. But in the end, Sakura immediately agreed even though she had food in her mouth.

"I would love too! And I could see how beautiful is Itachi-kun's engaged wife." Sakura perked up a smile.

"Great, it starts at about 4 and I can fetch you by then. I suppose your work wouldn't stop you from doing it right?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura scratched her chin. "Ah… my boss would understand me! As I said, he's a very kind and generous man." Sakura gave a thumbs up.

"Good." With that Sasuke continued eating his food without another word and interruption, and Sakura just did what Sasuke did too.

After their meal, Sasuke brought Sakura home as she alighted from his car before he gave her a quick kiss and rode off, perhaps back to his office or home. Sakura watched the car turned down into anther road before turning and walked into her house.

She took of her high heels as she threw it aside before heavily sitting on the sofa in the middle of her living room. She closed her eyes and took in a huge breathe. It was a long and tiring day for her.

Spilling coffee and stepping on her boss right before her interview, even though it was a 'success'. Then, she got a rare date with Sasuke, and along with that, she had agreed to go to his brother's engagement party.

Uchiha Itachi was on great person, indeed. Even though he was always the silent type, he still talked at times when it was needed. And during a few occasions when Sakura met Itachi, they actually came up with a few conversations they actually made her really interested and attentive.

Sakura wasn't worrying about Itachi or anything. She was actually worried that she might have to meet their parents.

_'What if they have bad impressions on me?'_ Sakura sighed while she walked into her bedroom and placed her bag on her bed as she took out her stuffs in her bag.

While holding onto the sticky note that Deidara had gave her this morning, she saved the number in her phone before she left it out to charge. Sakura looked out of the window, the bright night sky was well lit by the streetlights and the shining stars.

After changing into her pink pajamas, she switched off the lights, slipping under her warm covers and looked out of the window once again. The light outside seemed to slowly fade as her eyes fluttered and fell into her sleep.

_To be continued_

* * *

I know... if you're an anti SasuSaku fan, I know you hate this chapter now. And I know there was not much of SasoSaku-ness but this story is progressing so yeah,

Review for faster update too!


	5. Three things

[ May I ]

_The day is done and your smile is gone away._

Sakura got off the bus that she had took from her home, which was just opposite her work place. She glanced at her watch to find she had only 10 minutes left to work. Better late than sorry.

"Ding ling!"

The bell by the door chimed as Sakura fitted in the key Deidara gave her yesterday in the door and went into the dim office. The light outside guided her to find the switch as she switched it on. The office was immediately lighted up.

Realizing that she was actually the first to arrive for work, she heaved a sigh of relief. One of the reason was that she could relax a bit first before doing anything, and the other reason was that she don't have to have an awkward session with the redhead if Deidara had not come to work.

She placed her bag on the desk right in the middle of the office on the first floor. She slowly walked to the kitchen as she looked at the calendar that was hanging right beside the fridge.

"Meetings, meetings, meetings." Sakura muttered while she flipped the pages on the calendar before walking towards the fridge and opened it to find several different packets and can of drinks, a piece of half eaten pizza wrapper around with transparent plastic wrapper and a slice of sandwich, which was still untouched.

She knew that the pizza must have been just eaten yesterday, well, she ate pizzas most of the time at home alone, and by the smell and sight, she could determine when was it bought and eaten. She was _that _smart.

Sakura the closed the fridge as she slowly approached out of the kitchen, to be totally stunned when she heard the familiar bell chimed, indicating someone had entered. She froze, not making any sound or movement.

"Sakura?"

Another huge sigh of relief came out from Sakura as she walked out of the kitchen as she met face to face with her boss; Deidara.

"Oh Sakura, good morning, I thought who would it be here yeah." Deidara said.

"Oh, G-good morning Deidara." Sakura bowed politely before rubbing the back of her head. "I was just shocked actually, I thought it would be Sasori." Sakura mumbled awkwardly.

"Ah… Sasori, sometimes he would come darn early or seriously late, depends on the work he have done yesterday. Since he did overtime yesterday, I suppose he would come around ten or eleven today yeah." Deidara assured her.

Sakura nodded, indicating she understood while Deidara took out a hal-eaten sandwich before he stopped and turned to Skaura with a look like he just remembered something.

"Since we have time, let me tell you what are you supposed to do today since Sasori isn't here yet." Deidara started the conversation with his mouth full and made a hand signal, telling Sakura to proceed up the stairs.

Sakura nodded obediently as she approached the stairs while Deidara went into the kitchen to grab another cold drink from the fridge before following her up the stairs.

"So here." The blonde pushed the glass door on the second floor and it opened as they went into the familiar room where she was yesterday. Looking out of teh window, Sakura noted that the traffic outside was extremely jammed that every loud horns that was blasted could be heard even in the closed space.

Sakura felt that she was really lucky she was early, if not she might be stuck in the jam or worst, meeting her second boss out of nowhere just like the petrol station the other day.

The new worker followed her boss to several shelves. "These are the files where we organize the time and date with certain client and the document that are needed during the meeting. We need your help in organizing these files." Deidara said while Sakura was listening to him and injecting all the information into her brain.

"These books belongs to Sasori. You can take some for your reference if you got a project to do with Sasori yeah." Sakura silently gulped hearing his name and nodded profusely, wondering when will she peacefully get her job done with him in the future.

"These are the files for the projects we have done, on-goings or just receive lately and have not started on yet. We also need your help in organizing the files to different sections in the future too." Deidara said, munching onto his sandwich with his other hand while Sakura mentally remembered about all the information she had received.

"And this." Deidara said as he stuffed the sandwich into his mouth to make his hands free from anything and pushed the shelf ,turning it 180 degrees around and it revealed many many different quality and pieces of wood, thick or thin; basically anything, were lying on the shelve neatly and a tag number was sticked on them. Sakura's eyes seemed to be sparkling in glee.

"These are the woody stuff Sasori used for his project, sometimes it may run out and he would go to a warehouse to get more orders. Here are the different tag numbers and woods yeah." Deidara said as he pushed the shelf to another side, revealing another massive amount of wood.

"Amazing…" Sakura muttered, her eyes were all focused on the shelves as she strained her neck just like a giraffe to look at all of them. She recognize some of the wood she had seen back in her school.

"_That_ is the room where Sasori worked in." Deidara pointed at the door with his thumb. "But he hasn't come back yet so I can't open it." Deidara explained while Sakura looked yet again disappointedly and followed the blonde to the other shelve.

"Oh yeah Sakura, here is the mailbox key. The mailbox is just right outside the office, you are in charge of it too and settle these letters for us. Appointments and stuff, you know all these right? You just marked down the appointments in these files and it would be all settled."

Sakura nodded.

"I hate phones calls, so does Sasori, so you wouldn't mind if you settle it for us also right? It's the same as receiving mails from the mail box, just writing down the dates and time yeah." Deidara assured her.

Knowing fully well how easy the phone call job was, Sakura immediately agreed without hesitation and nodded once again.

Deidara let out a sigh of relief as he brushed his invisible sweat away from his forehead.

"All done yeah, you can start work now, practically this is almost just like a clerk job, seemed to have to depend on Sasori's mood to give you the job or project that you actually wanted in the first place yeah." Deidara shrugged.

"Nah, it's alright. It makes me easier to cope gradually." Sakura said. Deidara shrugged, not really convinced by Sakura but just let it go. But before Sakura went down to do her work, Deidara stopped her.

"Oh yeah, Sakura! I've forgot to tell you the three things Sasori hate the most." Deidara said while she turned around surprised, but she just stood there, patiently waiting for Deidara's answer. The blonde took in a deep breath, and let it all out.

"First, don't ever make him wait. He hates waiting very much, and he tends to throw temper when he does."

"Second, he hates people who beat around the bush, practically he wants people to be as straight forward like him. When you beat around the bush, he would just ignore you until you get to the point, which is actually related to him hating to wait; he hates to wait for people to finish babbling."

"Third, most importantly, when he gave you a glare, he's actually telling you don't mess up with him. Yeah, don't mess with him. Just don't do anything that he finds, annoying, stupid, crazy, childish, and practically everything he dislike, yeah." Deidara finally finished.

Sakura blinked almost unable to catch what Deidara was saying the whole time.

"Ar-are there actually more?" Sakura stuttered and a little bit bewildered.

"There are yeah, but if I tell you all, I rather read a Harry Potter book to you." Deidara said but than gave a pat on her back.

"So, just be aware about these main points that's all. Good luck yeah. That's all I can mostly help you." Deidara walked to his seat and opened some letters he just got from the mailbox this morning.

Aware that the mailbox keys were in her hand, she gulped and went down to do her work.

0o0

"Good morning! Yes, this is the right line you're calling, how may I help you, Miss? Oh Mrs. Inuzuka, oh yes, appointment huh…" Sakura immediately flipped through the files and finally found a slot. "Yes, he would be free. Would it be fine if I make an appointment on that day? Thank you very much, goodbye."

Sakura hung up the phone as she quickly made note of the appointment on the file Deidara had told her to update as soon as possible. The blonde walked out of the kitchen, his hand yet another can of drink.

"Doing great yeah."

Sakura beamed with pleasure and before she could say anything, the bell chimed by the door and there came in the redhead. He yawned as he walked in, glancing at Deidara before giving a slight wave and turned to walk up the stairs.

"Good morning!" Sakura partially take a brief look at the clock, making sure she did not get the time wrong. Sasori stopped at his track and stared at the pink-haired woman. He seemed surprise at first, but he soon gained back his composure and returned to his bored look.

"Oh. It's you." Sasori drawled while turning to the direction of the stairs after he realized it was the worker he hired just yesterday.

But trying to be as nice as possible, he halted and turned to the girl, "Good morning." Without further ado, he continued walking up the stairs without turning back and Sakura could actually hear Sasori opening the door at the second floor and entered the room as his footsteps faded away.

Deidara stared at Sakura, so did she. Sakura just didn't expect him to actually reply even though it wasn't even sincere or anything, but he did say something much more better than "Shut up brat."

"Wow, either he have eaten some miracle pills that made him changed his personailty, or he fell on the wrong side of the bed and hit his head yeah." Deidara whispered as he strolled up the stairs and shrugged, wanting to get back on his clay as soon as he got his drink.

Sakura the sat down on her chair and shivered. It wasn't the cold, but Sakura seemed to be afraid… afraid and pondering on her question, why was her redhead boss suddenly so kind to her when she had stepped on his foot like... Yesterday?

She shook her head before getting on her job and flipping through some random document before her phone began to vibrate in her pocket, standing up suddenly, she fished her hand into her pocket and quickly took it out and answered it, afraid that it would interrupt her boss and got fired on the first day.

"Hello. This is Sakura."

"Forehead! How's your job? Getting fired?" Ino said.

"I'm going to get fired if you called me at random times, and why do you seemed to want me to get fired?" Sakura gritted dangerously through clenched teeth.

"I was just caring for you Miss Haruno, and I was just wondering if you wanted to change job if you are unhappy with-"

"I'm ok pig, don't worry." Right then, foot steps could be heard as Sakura immediately covered her mouth and muffled in a soft voice.

"Pig, call you later. Bye." She immediately hung up the call, and surprised when the footsteps she heard belonged to Sasori.

With a file in his hand, he walked up to the desk where Sakura was sitting at. Sasori stared at her green eyes when she silently gulped.

"Ah. Can I do something for you?" Sakura said nervously. She never thought she had to be like that right in front of someone that had stole her cab.

"Here. I have something for you to do since you look like you're very free." Sasori took the yellow sticky note from the file and paste it on the side of the desk and used his index finger and stabbed on the piece of paper.

"Go to this warehouse, the address is written on here, I want you to check the condition of the wood material, the code is on the paper too, and the boss would exactly know what I want when you just show him this paper." Sasori said in a monotone.

"Me? I don't think I am capable to do it." Sakura muttered.

"I didn't hired you to tell me you can't do anything. Just simply go to this address, check the material in perfect condition and sign some paper. I'm pretty busy now." Sasori said, his stare slowly turned into a glare.

Knowing she was in trouble, she took her bag and her phone and tore the piece of paper from the table, making an OK sign. "Yes! I know how to check the condition perfectly, and I'll do it without any more hesitation. I'll be going now!" Sakura said before running out of the office.

Sasori stared at the door while it slowly closed on its own right after the pink-haired girl was outside. Through the glass window, he could see the girl waving a cab frantically for it to stop and got in quickly.

Sasori just scoffed as he went back doing his things.

"Where did Sakura go? I saw her in a rush yeah." Deidara said as he pointed at the huge glass window.

"Just asked her to check on the materials for me." Sasori said, sitting down on his chair and threw the file on the table. He placed his arm over his eyes, trying to get some sleep.

"Oh? You trust her? I'm not saying she can't be trusted, but this is not your personality to do trust someone you barely know." Deidara said.

"I hired her to get things done. If I don't trust her, what's the point in getting her to help out?" Sasori mumbled tiredly.

"How late have you stayed up last night yeah?" Deidara asked, even though he seemed to know the answer.

"6 in the morning, but I'm used to it now." Sasori replied tiredly as he rubbed his eyes like a 5 years old child and then sat up and got ready for work again.

Deidara began to mess up his clay again to get inspiration before he stopped and placed his clay on his desk. The blonde fumbled through his desk and finally took out an enveloped and smiled evilly at the redhead.

"Guess what Sasori, someone is engaged." Deidara waved the letter in the air before giving it to the redhead and started to open the letter.

"Who? Hidan?" Sasori took out the letter while Deidara shook his head and sat on his chair again.

"Itachi?" Sasori said, mildly surprised as he opened the letter. "Invitation to Uchiha's engagement party…" He raised his eyebrows.

"I can't believe it wasn't Hidan actually. But it isn't that surprising that it's Itachi either. There are so many girls who fall for him since when elementary school." Sasori merely said as he placed the letter on the table.

"You can be next also. Just get a girlfriend." Deidara said, a little bit concern of his friend.

"Stop asking me to get one when you yourself have none." Sasori muttered. Ignoring the redhead, Deidara got back onto his work again.

"It's on Saturday, perhaps we should tell Sakura too yeah and let her work till 3 or we could have her day off." The artist said and the other shrugged.

"Anything is fine, you'll just tell her." Sasori said.

"Geez, just try to communicate with her. You can't always ignore her or talk to her just through work. Friendship, I'm pretty sure you heard this word before. Who say you can't be friends with your workers?"

"The book on 1001 ways how to torture your own workers says so." Sasori said as he scribbled some words on his file.

"There's not such book, seriously. I've check on it yeah." Deidara said.

Sasori glanced at him and back to his work, "Oh? Why'd you check it out? Want to try some of the methods? Well, I have few in my mind now." Sasori said as he closed his file and walked towards the shelves and slot it in, taking one of his books and sat down to read.

"I'm not so evil." Deidara pointed out and placed his finished masterpiece. Sasori faked a laugh and went back to his work.

0o0

"Yeah, the materials are great." Sakura said as she patted the wood and gave a thumb up.

"Here, just sign this." The boss gave a few sheets of paper and Sakura signed at the bottom of the page after looking through the papers.

"So Sasori finally hired someone. He was always so tired when he came all the way here just to check the goods." He said. Sakura stopped writing and looked up, recalling when Sasori had entered the office. He seemed so tired that he looked shock when he saw her in the office.

"He finally did..." Sakura rubbed the back of her head innocently again, handing back the papers and the boss gratefully took it back.

"We'll send this in tomorrow." Sakura politely bowed in gratitude to warehouse owner and went out of the warehouse.

Hailing a Taxi, she immediately got in while a taxi stopped right infront of her. Finally settling down and telling where her destination was, she looked at her watch and took notice of the time. Sakura then stretched herself before she looked out of the window and looked at the passing trees and the buildings.

Unknowingly, she turned her attention and stared at the yellow sticky that she had still been holding onto since she came to the warehouse. Giving a glance, she then smiled and thought.

_'He sure have a very neat hand writing…'_

_To be continue_

* * *

Yeah! Finally finish updating, I know I've been focusing TOO MUCH about their work instead of the Saso-Saku ness, but bear with me first. :D

Please R&R, your reviews really motivate me. I really need all of your love :3


	6. Coffee and Flowers

[ May I ]

_Let me raise you up_

The taxi came to a stop as Sakura alighted from the cab after paying for the fare. Sakura held onto her bag and gave a huge tired sigh. She briskly walked towards the office, not until when the glass door was pushed opened and almost hit her face.

"Wooops!" Sakura was about to fall but the blonde managed to grab her by the arm.

"Sorry yeah." Deidara apologized quickly, scanning over Sakura to make sure she was fine.

"Ah, it's alright." Sakura said, before she frowned at her boss. "Where are you going?" She asked when at the moment Deidara was moving away for her to enter the building.

"Oh, I'm dropping by a few shops to buy some flowers. Need it for the vase that I just make yeah." The blonde artist answered.

"Really? I can recommend this one for you." Sakura dug into her bag, fishing out her pink purse and unzipped it. "My good friend is working here, just show her this card and she can give you really good offers. My friend is also talented in picking and choosing beautiful flowers." Sakura smiled proudly as she knew her best friend was just as amazing as she said.

"Thanks yeah." The blonde accepted the card and looked at the printed name "Yamanaka Ino." Deidara mumbled and flipped to the other side of the card. "Sakura's privilege card?" He read aloud from the printed text on the card.

"Ino wrote it. Just ignore it." Sakura said embarrassedly. "Erm, and I better get in before Sasori get impatient?" Sakura said like she was asking a question.

Deidara immediately looked up. "You should hurry yeah." The blonde made a hand signal indicating her to go. Sakura bowed politely and hurried up the stairs as the door chimed when the door closes behind her.

He shrugged as he placed the card into his pocket after looking at the address. "Worth a try, yeah." He walked to his carparkt lot and started his car, speeding off to the address afterwards.

0o0

"This is the receipt." Sakura handed the receipt with both of her shivering hands. Sasori frowned as he had noticed Sakura's uneasiness and took the paper but gave no comment other then muttering a "Thank you."

Sakura looked around the room until her eyes stopped at the clay vase that was placed on Deidara's table, it was not painted yet and Sakura assumed that the blonde artist was leaving it to dry until the clay hardened. Sasori caught her gaze before returning back to his work.

"Deidara was planning to make a vase and filled it with flowers to put on your desk today." Sasori explained. Sakura stared at the vase before at Sasori.

"Really?" She asked. Sasori slightly nodded without looking up from his work. Sakura gulped and she asked again.

"Anyway, is there anything I can help?"

Sasori stopped writing and looked at the file he had been thinking about the past two days. He quickly brushed it off before looking down and continued writing.

"I'll tell you later." The redhead answered. Sakura quickly nodded and knowing that her presence was causing him disturbance, she instantly leave the room but before she reached out the handle, a voice interrupted her actions.

"You can go for lunch if you want."

Sakura glimpsed at the busy artist before she quickly replied, "Nah it's alright, I'm not that hungry. I can hold on for another hree hou-"

A loud growled escaped from her stomach, exactly betraying what she was about to say. A blush immediately tinted her cheeks as she rubbed the back of her head innocently again while Sasori was staring at her like she was an idiot.

She was a completely different person when she was angry at him back when they were both at the petrol station.

"I shall go for lunch then. Do you need anything?" Sakura paused before asking him. Sasori shook his head and just waved her off in annoyance. Sakura nodded and swiftly exited the room within seconds.

She took her bag from her desk and exited the building, before halting and looked up at the second floor of the building. The bright golden sunrays reflected from the clear glass, making it rather impossible for Sakura to view what was behind the glass from her position. She turned her attention to the streets and stared at the throng of people roaming outside certain cafeteria and restaurants.

"Maybe I shall just eat MacDonald." She smiled brightly and said out loud, like she was announcing a piece of important news to the whole world before she strolled towards one of the most famous fast food chain restaurant in the world, finding rather ridiculous of herself.

0o0

Deidara parked his car in the car-park lot before slamming the door shut behind him and walked onto busy streets packed with worker who were on their precious lunch hours.

'_I wonder if Sasori gave Sakura a lunch break or something yeah.' _Deidara thought as he pushed himself through the frenzied crowd before finally reaching right outside where the address had stated in the name card.

He pushed the glass door opened as a bell chimed as it dangled at the side of the door, Deidara slightly smiled as he looked at the colours of different types of flowers neatly placed on the shelves in a long vase. The fragrance really captivates him, even possible to make him stay here and leave all his work behind him.

"Welcome!" A head popped out from the storeroom behind the counter as Ino welcomed her customer before she headed back inside and not long, she came out with a nicely wrapped flowers and placed it on the counter while one of her customers was glancing at the beautiful wrapping and nodded in enchantment at the beautiful bouquet.

"Thank you, do come back soon!" Ino said before the chimed of the bell sounded once again as the customer walked out of the store after payinng for the flowers.

"May I help you?" Ino said as her turquoise eyes shone even more colourful and bright than the flowers surrounding her, she wiped her hands clean on her white apron with flowers on it. Deidara blinked before he realized what he was supposed to do here.

"Yeah, Sakura recommended me to come here to buy flowers yeah." Deidara delved into his pocket and took out the card that Sakura had gave him before.

"You know Sakura?" Ino asked, taking the card from his hand to find out if he was saying the truth.

"Yeah. I'm Deidara, her boss yeah." He explained.

"Her Boss?" Ino's eyes widened. "You and that redhead are Sakura's boss?" The blonde almost yelled as she waved her hands in the air frantically while the card was still on her hand.

"I suppose you're talking about Sasori?" Deidara asked while the female blonde slowly nodded while she regained her composure.

"I guess it's him. The coffee-"

"Yeah, it's him. The coffee incident." Deidara cut in.

Ino face palm before sighing. "How could Sakura's day get any worse? Sakura told me about the other boss, and it must be terrible for her is he really came across that book." Ino said.

"Don't worry though, Sasori would not do anything to her. He was just saying it out of anger yeah." Deidara convinced her.

"I heard Sakura talked about her bosses. I never knew I'll met one of them at all." Ino clarified. "She told me that you are kinder and better than the redhead." Ino giggled while Deidara stared at her.

"Did she, yeah?"

Ino smiled and nodded before her expression suddenly changed. "Oh my, I'm sorry that I'm wasting your time. So, how can I help you?" .

"It's alright, I just came as I need flowers. Could you pick the flowers that Sakura likes, since I'm giving them to her." Deidara said.

Ino slightly frowned in disbelief.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not courting her. I am going to put the vase that I made for her so I felt that I should buy flowers that she likes too." Deidara reassured her.

"I see, obviously she likes pink but she really love daisies." Ino said as she walked up to one of the shelves and pointed at the yellow daisies.

"Awesome, I'll have that then." Deidara pointed as he dug for his wallet and took out some cash while Ino was wrapping the bouquet of flowers.

"It's alright, you don't have to pay for it." Ino said as she handed the flowers to Deidara.

"I can't. I'm buying it yeah." Deidara insisted nonetheless but Ino refused.

"Just take it as a thank you gift for being Sakura's wonderful boss. Furthermore, since these flowers are actually indirectly for her so it's really fine." Ino said while she handed Sakura's privilege card back to Deidara as the male blonde took the flowers back reluctantly before digging into his wallet, pulling3 out his name card as well and gave it to her.

"Fine. Then you should call me and we can have lunch together perhaps yeah." Deidara said before leaving the store with the daises in his hands.

Ino glanced at his name card while recalling the redhead she met two days ago. "Her two bosses… are pretty good-looking actually." Ino said, a hint of jealousy in the air while she waved it off and put the name card into her purse before the bell tolled once again, indicating yet another customer coming into the shop.

"Welcome!"

0o0

Sakura walked down the avenue, her stomach filled with the gassy coke as she burped and immediately covered her mouth to avoid anyone to hear it while she continued walking, crossing the busy road as the workers were rushing back to their work.

She passed by a few cafeteria, including the one she had went with Ino and Hinata two days ago. She stopped while she smelt the wonderful aroma of the coffee and the sound of the spoon clanging onto the glass cup. She recalled about the time she accidentally spilled the coffee onto Sasori.

Sakura felt that she was a little bit over reacting and childish back then… she covered her face with both of her hands as she thought to herself _'I'm so…'_ Sakura sighed as she recalled today's morning about what the boss from the warehouse told her.

_"So Sasori hired someone. He was always so tired when he came all the way here just to check the goods."_

Sakura looked at the seats where she had sat along with her two best friends, sipping that perfect coffee. Perhaps she should buy at least something for her boss.

She entered the cafeteria as she took a nicely wrapped sandwich from the counter and ordered the same coffee she drank the other day. After paying for the drink and food, she walked back to her office and burping a few times along the way.

0o0

"I'm back yeah, where's Sakura?" Deidara asked as he placed the daisies on his desk while slowly touching his clay to make sure it was fully dried up.

"Out for lunch." Sasori answered, glancing at the yellow flowers before smirking. "Nice flowers anyway."

"Sakura's friend told me that she likes Daisies." Deidara spoke before getting some paint to paint the vase by his own self, since this wasn't a project but his own personal entertainment.

"And I'm not as heartless like you yeah." The blonde said. taking the cup of coffee he had bought along the way and placed it on Sasori's table.

"Look at you, such a sweetheart." Sasori said, full in sarcasm in it.

"You know what, Sakura told her friend about you and I yeah." Deidara began painting the vase with bright orange colors, ignoring Sasori's sarcastic words. The redhead glanced at him and tried not to be interested but was not sucessful.

"So what did she say?" He asked, trying to feign incurious.

"She said that I'm so much more kind and better than you. And I'm much more attractive and awesome, plus I'm the best boss she have ever met other than you yeah. In your face!" Deidara laughed, as Sasori rolled his eyes and went back to his work.

"Whatever, I don't intend to play friends with her and _you_ too." Sasori remarked.

"Geez… I'm just kidding yeah. The first sentence is what Sakura had really said while the others were just added in by me, but all of them were pretty true yeah." Deidara added.

Sasori seemed eased with his partner's answer, but he was not aware of it either.

Sound of quick footsteps could be heard and the glass door was flung opened, resulting in the two artists looking at the girl who just barged in for no reason.

"Oh Deidara? You're back." Sakura said, slightly surprised as Deidara answered.

"Yeah, Your recommendation is great." Deidara said while pointing at the yellow daisies behind him. Sakura glanced at the Daises as she smiled like she was in

"Daisies!" Sakura shrilled with excitement.

"Yeah, Your friend, Ino told me about it and I find it beautiful too." Deidara smiled contentedly to himself thinking that the flowers he bought were perfect. Looking briefly at Sakura who was excited by some mere flowers, Sasori went back to his work in silence.

"Sasori." The redhead looked up to find the pink-haired girl looking at him, she placed the plastic bag that contained the cup of coffee along with the wrapped sandwich and smiled.

"I suppose you didn't eat either, you have to eat something or you'll get gastric-pain." Sakura reminded him.

"I already hav-"

"Yeah Sasori, you should eat up or you have gastric pain which is awfully bad for you." Deidara said as he swiftly took the coffee from the table that he had bought for Sasori and sipped it like it was his own.

Having no more reason to reject the food, Sasori muttered a "Thanks" after giving a glare at Deidara, which the blonde pretended that he did not see it as he casually walked back to his seat and continue sipping on the fresh coffee.

"I'll go back to work." Sakura was about to turn when Sasori stopped her.

"Sakura, read this and give me your views afterwards." He handed the white file to her as she blinked. Deidara continue sipping his precious coffee like nothing happened.

"W-what? Oh, read." Sakura stuttered before knowing what was happening as she did what her boss told her and opened the file, her eyes slightly widened after she stared at the words on the very front page of the file.

_Project #36 Furniture Proposal - Day care centre._

"So, what am I suppose to do? I mean after reading of course." Sakura said, rather oblivious what was going on.

"I want you to go through the file and give me your idea on it as soon as you had any. After that, sketch your overall design for me." Sasori clarified.

"Really? I mean really?" Sakura cleared her throat as Sasori slightly nodded before pointing at the clock on the wall.

Without waiting for another second, Sakura rushed down the stairs, in hope to put in her best effort on her very first design, even if it's not up to her boss's standards, she really wanted to at least had a chance in getting Sasori's approval for her talent.

"You make it Sasori, you make it yeah." The blonde announced as he placed the coffee on his desk and continues painting, Sasori rolled his eyes and went back to his work, the file that was just by his table a while ago was given to Sakura, and he could feel his burden so much lessened.

"You finally opened your heart and-"

"Shut up Deidara, I'm just giving her a test." Sasori cut Deidara's sentence with no mercy. "Test?" Deidara raised both of his delicate eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes, I'm just testing her abilities." Sasori summarized what he was thinking about all along.

"Seriously, you need an emotion call trust yeah." Deidara stated.

"Who said I didn't trust her?" Sasori finally admitted, but he went back to his work, praying that Deidara actually missed out what he just said.

"Danna!" Deidara exclaimed, rolling his wheeled chair in front of Sasori's desk. "Man, I must tell this to the other guys about this seriously, I can't imagine a pink haired girl changed your opinion on women and trust."

"First, I didn't change my opinion on any women and second, this is nothing to brag about so you have no reasons to tell them anything." Sasori glared daggers at Deidara.

"You never mention trust." Deidara pointed out.

"Did I forget to mention about smashing that vase on your head too?"

"Fine, fine." Deidara rolled the chair and back to his desk and continued painting his vase with bright orange paint. Sasori began looking at his computer until his gaze moved to the plastic bag, which had the sandwich and the coffee in it. Rummaging the stuff in the bag, he took out the cup of coffee and took out to cover and blew the surface of the coffee and gave a sip.

'_This coffee tastes pretty good.'_ Sasori thought as he continued to sip his coffee and took a bite on the sandwich.

0o0

"… And since this day-care centre took care of children's between 3 to 11 years old, it is important for them to grow in a proper environment. This design is specifically for…" Sakura used many descriptive words to describe with specific details and explanation like she learnt when she was studying about Design and Technology.

Sasori silently sat on his chair while tapping his feet, listening to her comprehensive ideas while she pointed out and explained the details and the sketch she had drew.

Deidara was pretty impressed with how Sakura was doing, he had actually seen Sasori going through his proposal with other of his clients before, and to say the truth, Sakura was equally awe-inspiring like Sasori.

"… This would be my idea for this erm... project." She said after clearing her throat, and both Sakura and Deidara patiently waited for the redhead's response.

Sasori stopped tapping his feet and looked at the sketch that Sakura neatly drawn. "Pretty good." Sasori said, even though he didn't really want to admit it. Sakura's bright emerald eyes glimmered like it was brighter than the stars in the night sky.

"Really?" Sakura exclaimed. Deidara wanted to laugh out loud as he seen the scene between the two of them.

Back then in high school, Sasori seemed anti-social, rarely speaking or talking to anyone except the gang with Deidara. The redhead appeared to be a sexist and never once complimented a girl after she had done something incredibly good or perfect. Being anti-social and sexist himself, mostly all the girls rather went out with the rest of the gang than Sasori, thus he was rather alone during days like Valentine's Day and etc.

But now, Sasori just complimented a woman, and he looked really funny when he did. This would certainly hit the headlines if this happened back at school.

Sasori looked at the sketch again before answering. "I'll hand this project in your charge and I'll help out when it's necessary. Would that be fine, Haruno?" Sasori questioned.

"Oh my- Yes! It would be totally fine!" Sakura jumped out of her seat as Sasori stared at her curiously, wondering what medicine did she took this morning. "I'll do my best! I promise!" Sakura beamed.

"Tomorrow, I'll show you the room." Sasori pointed at the room he was referring to casually before cutting in between Sakura's speech-of-excitements. "For now, you can edit and finalise your sketch" Sasori said.

"I'll do it as fast as possible!" Sakura quickly rushed down the stairs like lightning as the footsteps faded into silence as the two artists presumed that she was silently working on her things.

"Sasori… You just gave her a job she always wanted on the second day of her work yeah." Deidara said in disbelief.

"Is there a problem with that? You've been complaining about not giving her any work since yesterday." Sasori scowled.

Deidara was not totally convinced but didn't say anything and shrugged. He just felt that this was not Sasori's usual attitude and personality and also sensed that Sasori seemed different after he had interacted with that particular pink-haired girl.

0o0

_"Mom... Ar-Are angels...Pink?"_

_._

_._

_The innocent pink-haired girl looked at the pencil and smiled sheepishly again. "Hehe, never mind, my name is actually called Haru-"_

Sasori's eyes flung open and the first thing he saw was the ceiling in his dim lit room. He slowly sat up on his bed, slightly panting when he just woke up from his dream as he run through his messy red hair between his fingers in frustration.

"She's Haru…Haruno Sakura."

_To be continue_

* * *

Thank you for those readers who reviewed, put this story as their fave or alert!


	7. The new Matchmaker?

[ May I ]

_Let me be your love_

"Amazing! Ohhhhhh Look at this! It's so cool!" Sakura was practically jumping for joy after Sasori had allowed her into his workroom. He seemed a little regretful for bringing her in even though he tried to not show it.

"Are you done, like seriously?" Sasori stared, annoyed at the little girl.

"I'm sorry. It's been a while since I've came across so many awe-inspiring-"

"-Equipments." Sasori cut in while taking her wrist, lifting her arms and placed the set of keys on her hand.

"This is the key to the room. I always locked it when I'm the last to go. Be sure to check the room if it's locked before you go everytime when you're the last in the office." Sasori reminded.

Sakura nodded and clutched onto the keys. "I'll take note of it."

"I've talked to the Principle yesterday and she's rather pleased with your idea. And I've discussed the matter with her and I think that in two months time, you can complete the project." Sasori clarified.

"I…" Sakura bit her lips and her eyes slightly became watery.

"Just do a good job." He only said.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed as she flipped through the pages in the file excitedly. Sasori stared at her childish action and slightly smiled.

"Hey Sasori, after all of my work could I... Erm join you in the painting?" Sakura asked innocently, looking up. Sasori's smile immediately disappeared as his face turned into a solemn and serious expression.

"Depends, maybe." He said and walked towards the door.

"I'm explained pretty much about the equipments, and I supposed you also fully well know how to use them right?" He asked. Sakura gave a thumbs up, "I've learnt to use it before! I'll ask you if I have any enquiries." She replied.

Without further ado, he closed the door behind him and stared at Deidara who was doing on his own project.

"See? I've picked the perfect employee for you yeah." Deidara said, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

"Yeah yeah, thank you." Sasori muttered, hardly thankful at all.

He proceeded to his work, and sometimes stopped to hear any sound coming from his own workshop. After hearing some shifting noise and drillings inside the room, he felt assured and continued with his work. Deidara seemed to catch what Sasori was actually doing for the past one hour.

"Are you looking out for Sakura?" Deidara questioned.

"No." Sasori lied through his teeth.

"You're weird." The blonde drawled while molding his clay into a fine piece of sculpture. Sasori gave him a sidelong glance.

"And why am I weird?" He asked, crossing his arms in defiance.

"Don't know." Deidara shrugged, deciding to avoid the topic for now.

It was soon afternoon and Deidara volunteered to get some food for the rest of them, and there left Sasori and Sakura alone in their office. Shutting off his computer, he stared at the traffic outside his office through the clean transparent window. In just a minute, his mind started to drift, making him seemed lifeless on the chair.

"Sasori_?_"

The redhead immediately snapped awake as Sakura waved her hands in front of him and called out his name for the fifth time.

"Ah, yes?" He said, adjusting himself on his chair.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something." Sakura mumbled sheepishly, thinking that Sasori would scold her for being useless and annoying.

"What is it?" Sasori drawled as he stood up and walked towards the room. Sakura stared in disbelief at her boss before clearing her throat and rushed behind him.

"I was trying to draw a 170cm line and 35 degree angle at this point, but I kept making it to 55 degree angle." Sakura explained as she pointed at the board while Sasori just stared at it blankly for a few seconds.

"Here. You draw this line first, before you make a marking here. Done." In just a second, the master of his own art finished what Sakura had been trying for the past half an hour.

"You're really amazing!" Sakura said impressively. Sasori just gave soft scoff.

Sakura rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "Actually, I was afraid to ask because I thought you would scold me." She confessed while Sasori gave her a weird look.

"Am I that scary?" He asked.

"Sort of. That day when you- Never mind, thank you anyway." Sakura smiled. "And you seem to be awfully kind today." She added

"I'm always kind _and_ caring." Sasori lightly joked. Sakura blinked and stared at Sasori with a skeptic look but remained silent. The redhead sighed and waved her off before reaching out for the door handle.

"Forget it."

Sakura suddenly felt a little guilty for not pretending to agree that he was actually a kind and caring person.

Before Sasori stepped out of the room, a thought suddenly occurred in Sakura's mind as she remembered something she wanted to ask for a very long time. "Can I request something?" She spoke quickly.

Sasori stopped on his track and slightly glanced at Sakura, indicating that he's listening.

"May I take a half-day off this coming Saturday? I have some plans to do in the late afternoon." Sakura bit her lips, feeling a little stupid for asking a leave when she worked less than a month.

Sasori raised his eyebrows in surprised.

"Actually Deidara and I had something to do on that day too. So, since you requested first, it's fine with me." Sasori replied.

"Really? Thank you!" Sakura said merrily and she went back to her own work like a robot that just finished replenishing its energy. Sasori stared at her for a moment before he turned and exited the room.

0o0

"What do you want?" Deidara asked while leaning onto the doorframe. Sasori was busy typing while Sakura tapped her feet, pondering on what should she get.

"Can I have a bag of chocolate chips cookie this time?" She said. Deidara laughed as he crossed his arms, "What about you yeah?" Deidara looked over at Sasori.

"The same old thing." He muttered mindlessly, not wanting to get distracted from a report he had started since yesterday.

"Alright." The blonde said before heading down the stairs.

Deidara began whistling as he walked past Sakura's desk before he stopped in his track and stared at the daisies he bought from the flower shop almost a week ago. He took out his wallet and began flipping through his cards until he stopped at a particular one. "Sakura's Privilege card." He read out loud.

_"Sakura, here's your card." Deidara said, handing the card to Sakura at her desk, as she was busy sketching the drawing Sasori had told her to do. _

_"Oh, it's alright! I rarely buy flowers anyway. So you should take the card and use it." She said merrily. _

_"Really?" Deidara said as he looked at the card._

_"Why would girls buy flowers anyway? You can use it when you get a girlfriend in the future." She winked._

Deidara flipped to the other side, staring at the address and the contact number listed on the card. He took out his phone and began dialing the number and waited for the receiver to pick up.

"Hello? This is Ino!" The receiver responded.

"This is Deidara. Remember-"

"Oh! Sakura's boss!" Ino chirped behind the phone.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you want to have," Deidara cleared his throat and glanced at the clock again so he wouldn't make a fool out of himself, "lunch together."

"Of course. I just changed shift and I was just wondering who to have lunch with." Ino said.

Deidara rubbed the back of his head, a habit that he learnt from Sakura. "Why don't we have lunch at the restaurant near your office?" Ino suggested, breaking the few seconds of silence.

"Sure yeah." He said as he pushed the door opened and the glass door slowly closed on its own.

"I'll be there in 15 minutes."

0o0

Sasori leaned back on the door as his auburn-eyes were glued to Sakura, observing her as she cut along the thin edges of the wood, making it into thin and fine slices. "How's this?" Sakura turned and winked behind the thick goggles that she had been wearing.

For the first time in a long time, she saw Sasori laughed. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand, but he was chuckling nonetheless. "What's so funny?" The rosette pouted childishly, even though she was slightly surprised that Sasori laughed for such the first time.

"The sand is all over your face. I think you got it while sawing the wood." Sasori said, trying to take in deep breathe. "And you look funny." He finally finished his sentence.

"Stop laughing!" Sakura whined as she started wiping away furiously at her chin. "There!" she said, pointing to her _newly_ cleaned cheek.

Sasori quirked an eyebrow and stared at her in amusement before approaching towards Sakura with one hand in his jean's pocket. "You missed some." Sakura tried to look down to see the dirt Sasori was referring to on her face.

"Uh…Where?"

"Right," he used the hand that wasn't in his pocket and raised it to wipe away some sand dust that were still left at the side of her cheek with his thumb, "here." He said in a low, soft whispered, focusing on brushing of the remaining sand with his thumb on her soft and tender cheek.

Sakura stared at Sasori as he was slightly frowning when he was unable to brush off some sand on her cheek. Realizing how quiet she is, he turned his gaze and looked at Sakura, and their eyes met; emerald green and chocolate brown.

The redhead averted his eyes and immediately stopped his actions, stepping back while digging into his pocket. He fished out a packet of tissue before throwing it to the pinkette who successfully caught it with her two hands.

"Wipe it yourself." Sasori muttered. Sakura obeyed and took a piece of tissue to rub her cheek and in no time, all the sand fillings were gone.

"How's this?" She smiled gaily at him, trying to lighten their awkward moment a while ago. Sasori never said anything, but just made a small grunt in agreement.

Sakura whirled around and placed the saw back to where it was while she brought another equipment and started working with it. She was partially done on her current work as Sasori went back observing her.

_'What am I doing.'_ The redhead questioned himself as he ruffled his red hair. After standing for a few more minutes and ensuring that everything would be fine in Sakura's hand, Sasori turned and walked out of the room as the door slowly closed behind him. Sakura immediately stopped her work and turned around to find the man who had been with her for the past half an hour missing. Sakura just slightly frowned before and mindlessly returned back to her business.

0o0

"We finally meet." Ino said after pausing as she walked towards where Deidara was sitting. He clasped his hands together and raised an amused eyebrow. "Sorry, the traffic was pretty bad." She sat down on the chair and a waiter approached them as she placed her order and the waited politely dismissed himself and went to get the food for Ino.

"I was wondering, how was Sakura in the job?" Ino asked excitedly, concern for her dear friend.

"She's perfectly fine now yeah." Deidara easily assured her with an unnecessary wink. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you about this. Does Sakura have a boyfriend?" He asked.

Ino pondered wryly before stroking her chin. "Are you interested in her?"

"No yeah." Deidara replied with a bored look on his face.

"So is it a no… or yes?" Ino asked again.

"No." Deidara sighed before he went on. "I have a habit to add a grunt or 'yeah' behind, so don't mind me." Deidara said. Ino nodded in understanding. "Sorry, I didn't know that before." Ino pulled a face.

Ino crossed her legs as she shifts her seats closer to Deidara. "Why would you want to know if Sakura had a boyfriend?" Ino asked suspiciously but still went on. "She do have a boyfriend, but he rarely had time to spent with her on dates and movies." Ino sighed, having her hands clasped together and resting before her chin.

"Actually, I did ask her to talk to him because if he continues to be like this, their relationship would be rather meaningless." Ino stated.

"She had a boyfriend…" Deidara said disappointedly.

"So... Why've you asked?" Ino repeated her questions. "I just want to know about her that's all yeah." Deidara lied. "But you do want her to find a better one right?" Deidara asked. Ino nodded grudgingly and gave an inward sigh.

"She wouldn't listen to me when I talked about this matter to her and she would regularly change the subject. If I were to find someone better, I might consider him to be her perfect new boyfriend." Ino wondered aloud.

Deidara's eye brightened up but it died down_, 'I can't do that and if I did, he would be angry…'_

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Deidara asked.

Ino's cheek slightly turned pink as she fiddled with the straw in her drink.

"I had one, but we've broke up… that's why I want to help Sakura. If she doesn't find the right one, she had to search for one soon! I'm just afraid that she would get hurt if this continues on." Ino said, sipping her drink.

The female blonde twirled her hair as she looked back at Deidara. "What about you?" She smirked, changing the depressing subject. "Currently I don't have… but that doesn't me I won't yeah." He boastfully said. Ino giggled as she looked at Deidara. "You're cute." She blurted out.

"Cute?" He repeated, eyes widened in incredulity. "Yup! Cute." She chuckled.

"I'm not cute. Manly is more accurate yeah." Deidara smiled contentedly to himself as he showed off his muscle.

"Ewww." Ino shook her head in disgust.

"What?" Deidara exclaimed as the two blonde continued to enjoy their chat before their meals came.

0o0

"I cut myself again." Sakura groaned as she walked out of the workroom, a little irritated with herself for being so clumsy and careless all the time. Sasori gave a heavy sigh before he walked towards Sakura as he stared at the opened wound on her finger. He grabbed a tissue and passed to her before walking off.

"It's 2 in the afternoon already." Sakura mumbled worriedly as she stared at the clock, crumpling the tissue in her hand instead of stopping her bleeding. Right on the cue, her phone rang as she tried to take her phone in her pocket with her other hand that was not injured.

"Where the hell could that Deidara be at this time…" Sasori grumbled, walking towards his workroom after he had inspected her wounds before he began to search for something in the lower cabinet. Flipping open her phone, she responded to the call.

"Hello? Oh, I'm ready! I'll be down in 5 minutes." Sakura exclaimed into the phone before she cut her call.

"I'll be leaving now, take care." She put her phone back in the pocket, poking her head into the workroom to inform Sasori for her departure. Without waiting for his response, she walked off and opened the glass door, wiping the blood on her finger with the tissue that Sasori had gave her a while ago.

Sasori was so focused in finding the plaster that he didn't realize that Sakura was gone. He stood up with a small plaster in his hand, which he had taken from a first-aid kit walked out of the room to find Sakura disappeared. Just as he was about to reach for the glass door to search for Sakura, he turned to find a familiar figure running out of the office through the clear glass window.

By the car park lot, a nice looking dark blue BMW car was parking by the road while the owner of the car got out of the vehicle and opened the door for Sakura, who was running towards him, the mysterious guy took her bag and gave her a slight kiss on her cheek.

From Sasori's view, he could tell that the two of them were talking about something before they headed back into the car, driving off into another direction.

Sasori watched the whole scene, he began to release his grip from the door handle as it slipped back to his side. The redhead paused for a moment before lowering his gaze and looked at the plaster in his hand. He stared at it for a whole minute, deep in thought. The crimson-haired artist was so distracted that he didn't realize Deidara walking up the stairs, looking at him through the transparent glass door.

"Sasori!"

Sasori slightly jumped when Deidara suddenly pushed opened the glass door and shouted his name as he laughed afterwards. The blonde went to place the food on his table while clutching onto his stomach, chortling behind his hand, as if Sasori couldn't see it.

"You're childish Deidara." Sasori looked threateningly at him.

Deidara started to recover as he wiped a small tear of the corner of his eye.

"This is the first time I've managed to give you a fright." Deidara tried to control his laughter again but ended up in fits of giggles. "When I saw you jumped, you look hilarious!" He chuckled.

"Where have you been all these while? You fully know how much I hate to wait."

"Alright alright." Deidara rolled his eyes before glancing around. "Where's Sakura?"

"You just missed her. SHe left."

The blonde took in a deep breathe before exhaling. "I shall leave her cookies in the fridge, yeah." He remarked while looking at his watch.

"You know, we should get ready now for Itachi's party in two hours time." Deidara reminded him, handing the sandwich to Sasori as he reached out to take his food.

"What's with the plaster?" Deidara asked, noticing the plaster in his hand when the redhead took the sandwich. Sasori looked at it before placing it on the table and unwrapping his sandwich, taking a bite.

"Nothing." He mumbled while he multitasked, eating while packing up his things.

Deidara watched the artist began packing his stuff to leave as he follow suit. The blonde noticed there's something wrong with Sasori when he was so distracted standing by the glass door and looking at the window a while ago.

Sasori rarely showed any emotions, other than being pissed and angry at everything he disliked. But a while ago, Deidara seemed to descry an emotion in his eyes when he was creeping up on him.

_'Sadness and disappointment?'_

Sasori stuffed the remaining sandwich into his mouth as he picked up several files, walking towards the shelves and put them back while Deidara stopped his packing, observing his movements.

The blonde felt extremely motivated by what Ino had said during lunch. Deidara; the new matchmaker of the season, had decided that he was going to help Sasori find his happiness if he wouldn't find it himself.

_To be continue_


	8. Perfectionist

[ May I ]

_May I hold you, as you fall to sleep._

"You look… Beautiful."

Sasuke opened the car door as Sakura entered inside, slightly adjusting her clothes awkwardly. The Uchiha closed the door before entering at the other side of his vehicle as he soon started the car.

"Really? Ino and I had went to the shopping mall yesterday and pick this dress after an hour of searching. I'm glad you like it." She shyly said, clutching onto her handbag while looking down at her feet.

Sasuke slightly smile, driving his car down the street.

The cherry-haired girl stared at him for a moment before she averted her gaze to the front. It had been a few minutes of silent as the Uchiha focused on the road. She started to felt rather edgy and anxious whenever he stopped his car at the traffic light, thinking that they had reached their destination and would have to meet Sasuke's parents.

"Are you nervous?" Her boyfriend asked, noticing how quiet she was. She confessed and nodded.

"This is the first time I'm meeting you parents, since they were always overboard when I went to your house. It's rather uneasy and-"

Sasuke placed his hand over Sakura's shivering ones while the other was still on the wheel. She looked up to find him smiling, slightly laughing.

"What's so funny? I'm serious!" Sakura pouted, moving her hands away from Sasuke and crossed her arms, looking out of the window in displeased.

"So you've been worrying about this all day long? You don't have to worry…" He turned his car and headed to another street, starting to slow down as his estate could be seen a few meters away. A few other cars were parked beside the house or drove in to parked beside the garden. He pulled over, which startled Sakura, just realizing they had reached.

"You'll do great, I'm sure you'll leave them an unforgettable impression."

Sakura silently gulped, Sasuke alighted from his car and goes around the vehicle to open the door for Sakura. She knew how clumsy and an accident-prone person she was. What if she were to ruin her very precious first impression? Would her dream in getting married with such a perfect boyfriend just be destroyed and gone?

The Uchiha's heir reached out his hand for Sakura to hold and alighted from the car. She stepped out of the car with her high heels, giving a bright broad smile as she tries to gain back her confidence.

"Let's go, my Princess." He chuckled. Deciding to play along with him, she slightly lifted up her dress and bowed.

"Please lead the way, my Prince."

0o0

Sasori drove his car into a street and parked swiftly at the end of the road. He slammed his door shut before locking it and putting the car keys into his pocket.

Walking down the well-lit street towards a huge estate, he noticed a few other people were strolling towards the Uchiha's property, wearing all sorts of branded clothes bags and accessories.

The only thing Sasori could think in his mind was that all of them wore all of these were just to impress Itachi's father, Fugaku Uchiha, in order to work with their huge company and strike deals together. Sasori scoffed and shook his head, continuing his slow walk.

The redhead shuffled his feet, looking down at all times, feeling uninterested in other things. But just then, something caught his eyes as he walked further down, he turned around to find the familiar dark blue BMW car that he had seen this afternoon parked at the side of the pavement. Sasori blinked, remembering the scene where Sakura had got onto the exact car that he's staring right now.

"Yo shorty!"

Sasori's thoughts were immediately interrupted. He whirled around into another direction to find his same old pal Hidan, running towards the innocent redhead and jumping onto him in surprise.

"What- Hidan!" Sasori blurted out, trying hard not to fall. Hidan placed his arms over his friend's shoulder while ruffling his red hair.

"You've finally fucking grown taller! Last time I've seen you, you're below my nose!" He yelled out when in fact, Sasori could hear him extremely loud and clear. A few guests stared at the duo and muttered among themselves suspiciously, and Sasori could somehow make out what one of them were saying, something related to gay.

"OK, stopped it Hidan." The redhead muttered, slightly pushing his friend aside and stared blankly at him. "Where is Kakuzu?"

"Cheh, that bastard's been busy counting his fucking money for Jashin's sake. He had now opened the 12th branch of his own bank over the town. He just said that he would be arrive here with Kisame." He waved the subject off before playing with his long Jashin necklace. Sasori had noticed that he had been wearing since the first day of high school, or even before that.

"Hidan, Sasori." A rather monotone voice called out.

The two looked up to find Kakuzu and Kisame in the same car as Kisame waved back like a three-years old child on the front seat.

"Hey bastard, I didn't know you would come so early."

"You must be saying something stupid again." Kakuzu snorted, parking right between Sasuke's car and another unknown's one. The two guys got off the car and slammed the door shut behind them, approaching to the other two who were against the wall.

"Where's Deidara, I thought he was with you?" The weirdly blued-skin asked. The redhead shrugged, leaning onto the wall by the pavement. "We use our own car to come here, we've missed each other because of the traffic light-"

'"I'm here yeah!" A loud shout could be heard on other side of the street. All of them turned to find the rather familiar blonde running towards them.

"Speak of the little blonde devil…" Kisame wondered aloud.

"Hey Kakuzu, Kisame… and Hidan." Deidara slightly panted, mentally reminding himself that he should go to the gym tomorrow.

"Let's go, since Konan and Pein has not arrived then we shall not wait." Sasori mumbled, walking towards the gate and completely forgotten about the car he had noticed a while ago.

"They must be having some hot sex in their car." Hidan chuckled.

"Mind what you say, because he will bash you if he heard that." Kakuzu warned but the Jashinist completely ignored him. They ended up walking into the estate while reminiscing about some crap they had experienced during high school.

"Can you fucking believe this? Itachi's fiancé must have hit a jackpot when she got Itachi's heart." Hidan commented, rubbing his chin.

They entered the huge grand hall after signing their names at their entrance. Right in the middle of the hall were a long table filled with tons of small cakes and foods, a stage at the front for a few guests to dance when they were willing to. Right beside, there were a few violinists and a pianist playing a beautiful and soothing song. This was just practically too high class for them.

"Let's find the main host." Deidara nudged Sasori. He gave a nod before following the others.

0o0

"This is Sakura. Sakura, this is my mom."

Sakura politely bowed while his mother greeted back with a small smile. "I've heard a lot about you from Sasuke. You're indeed a very beautiful child just like what my son said." Uchiha Mikoto remarked. Sakura blushed and slightly smiled.

"Really? Thank you…"

"Where are Sakura's parents? Why didn't you invite them over?" She questioned Sasuke. Sakura waved both of her hands frantically. "They are currently having an overseas business trip. It's not Sasuke's fault." She explained.

Mikoto nodded before shaking her head disappointedly. "What a pity, if only they were in town, we can discuss over both of your marriage." Mikoto teased both of them.

"Mom, we know what we are supposed to do." Sasuke grasped Sakura hand to prevent her from blushing even more.

"Alright alright-" Before she could speak further, a waiter walked towards the three of them.

"Sorry for the interruption, but Mr Fugaku Uchiha wants to speak to both of you regarding to the business plan that the Sabaku Sand's trading company is willing to offer." The waiter whispered into Mikoto's ears. She nodded and glanced at Sasuke before facing Sakura.

"I'm sorry dear, but we have something important to discuss. Perhaps you should enjoy yourself at the food's table." She said, walking off. Sasuke walked behind his mother before stopping.

"You can go find my brother or find some place to rest for the time being, I'll come and find you afterwards." He only said before quickening his steps behind his mother.

Sakura couldn't do anything but nodded. She stood right in the middle of the hall, wondering around aimlessly with no one to talk to. All of the guests were from rich companies and other several foreign businessmen and she had completely nothing to talk about with them even if she were to find someone to talk to.

She really wished that her parents or Ino and Hinata were by her side now. Finding that there no other options, she went forward to the food's table to enjoy the delicious cuisine.

0o0

"That chick sure is hot." Hidan chuckled to himself.

"Stop it Hidan." Kakuzu muttered.

"Itachi sure have some fucking nice taste." Hidan wondered aloud, ignoring Kakuzu while glancing at the Uchiha and his fiancé at the other side of the hall after meeting both of them.

"Hey guys."

A familiar voice called out as everyone whirled around to find the blue and orange haired couple walking towards them. Hidan whistled at Konan while everyone sighed.

"This guy is itching for a bashing tonight…" Sasori muttered. The two of them had their hands intertwined together to show that they were a happily married couple like everyone thought they always were.

"Sorry we are late." Konan apologized.

"Where is the Itachi?" Pein looked around. Deidara pointed at the corner.

"He's busy over there yeah." He stated.

Hidan scoffed, crossing his arms while looking at Konan and Pein, they looked back and stared weirdly at the white-haired Jashinst.

"What is it?" Pein muttered.

Hidan suddenly smirked and looked at every one. "Let's have a bet!"

Kakuzu's eyes immediately lighted up and turned to face the loud mouth Hidan.

"What bet?" Kisame asked.

"Let's bet who would be the one getting fucking married next!" He grinned proudly. Everyone stared at him, looking at each other before Deidara broke the silence.

"I'm betting; on Sasori!"

The redhead knew this was coming; he turned and fixed a glare at Deidara who feigned that he didn't see anything.

"Ok, how much?" Kakuzu asked, his was already holding onto a pen and a paper. Everyone knew how efficient he was when it is related to money.

"Twenty bucks." Deidara grinned.

"I'm outta here." The redhead gritted through clenched teeth.

"Oi!" Deidara shouted, following the fuming redhead.

Pein was about to raise his hands when Hidan cut in, "Not you two fucking couple, both of you had already set a wedding date." The orange-haired slowly put down his hand while his fiancé sighed.

0o0

Sasori walked briskly through the huge numbered of guests, managing to shake off Deidara for a moment. He rolled his eyes and gave a sigh, he need some quiet time alone to think.

But God just doesn't allow him to do so, a few girls began to pester the redhead and insisted him to have a dance with them as he tried very hard to politely declined all of them since he was about to lose his temper already.

Sasori walked to a rather long table filled with many different types of cakes and drinks that could actually serve the entire people in the hall. He looked around for a moment until his eyes laid on the last small chocolate cupcake atop of a plate. He slightly smiled at the cute decoration on the small cake, reaching out to it. But to find someone beat him to it.

"This is so cute!" Sakura giggled. She grabbed the cupcake, removing the cupcake base at the side and began to munch the chocolate cupcake happily just like a kid. She was so engrossed in licking her fingers that was stained with chocolate cream that she failed to notice the redhead staring at the pink-haired girl across the table.

"Sakura."

The said girl stopped her actions immediately as she looked up and stared in horror.

"B-Boss?" Sakura nearly shouted.

"Sasori, I finally found you yeah." Deidara said, walking towards the his other as he sat his hand on Sasori's shoulder.

"Hey Saso- Sakura?"

"Why are you here?" She asked, pointing shockingly at the two of them.

"And then why are _you_ here?" The two artists said together at once. But Deidara was too attracted to Sakura's beauty and turned his attention from the question instead.

"Sakura, you look rather gorgeous tonight yeah." Deidara smirked. Sakura's face immediately turned red as she played with the laces on her dress.

"Thanks…" Sasori glanced at her for a few seconds before turning away, making no comment about agreeing or against what Deidara said.

"Sakura, why don't you join us? You couldn't be hanging around the food table for the entire time yeah. And you looked too prepossessing to be doing that yeah." Deidara gave a wink.

"But I-" Deidara just grabbed her arm and pulled her away without waiting for her answer.

"Come on!"

"But-" Sakura tried to protest but Deidara had already dragged her away. Sasori watched the two of them before he shook his head and in the end as he followed behind them.

"Guys, Let me introduce someone to all of you, yeah."

All of them turned around to find the cheery-haired along with the blonde walking towards them. "This is my newly hired employee, Sakura. And all of them are my high school friends yeah; Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Konan, Pein."

"Hello Sakura." Konan politely put out her hand while Sakura gladly accepted the handshake.

"Hello." Sakura smiled.

Hidan raised an amused eyebrow and glanced at Sakura, switching places with Kisame who was actually standing beside Sakura before.

"You're hot. Pinky." Hidan smirked. A small vein popped out on Sakura's temple as she glared at Hidan.

"Don't call me Pinky!" She bellowed.

"Pinky~" He said teasingly.

Before Sakura could argue back, Sasori appeared between the two of them out of nowhere, slightly shocking both of them after getting separated. But Sakura didn't mind. She preferred her redhead boss that this old man with white hair. "Stop being childish Hidan." Kakuzu muttered, with the pen and paper still in his hand.

Ignoring both Kakuzu and Sasori's attempt to separate the two of them by standing in between, Hidan stepped in front and looked at the two artist, "How the fuck did you manage to hire such a hot employee? Mind going out for a date?" Hidan smiled innocently.

"Hey! Mind you-"

"Sorry, but she's taken." A voice said from behind Hidan. All of them looked at the direction to find the familiar figure smiling at all of them.

"Itachi! So finally the host is free to attend us." Konan commented.

"Itachi-kun!" Sakura face immediately brightened up.

"What's with the 'Kun' behind, yeah." Deidara asked. Sasori glanced at Itachi, wanting to know what's the answer as well.

"As I said, she's taken. She's going to be my future sister-in-law." Itachi clarified, squeezing in between Hidan and Sasori.

Sasori's eyes unmistakably slightly widened, he recalled the scene he encountered in the afternoon. _'So, that guy that fetched Sakura during her work is Itachi's brother…'_

"So, please mind your language!" Sakura huffed.

"Don't mind him, he have Tourette's syndrome." Kakuzu mumbled.

"What the fuck?" Hidan looked back at his friend, mouth opened wide.

"Where is your fiancé?" Konan asked. "I'll introduced her to you later. She's busy meeting up with her other friends." The Uchiha heir explained before adding.

"While I was attending to something nearby, I heard someone mentioned something about betting, what is it?" Itachi asked interestedly.

"On who the hell would be the next to get married." Hidan smirked, turning to Kakuzu before glancing at the Uchiha.

"Sasori has one awesome vote made by the blonde bastard." Hidan pointed. Sakura raised her eyebrow before making a sidelong glance at Sasori, deep in thought.

After thinking for a few second, he finally spoke. "I place my bet on Sasori as well." Itachi replied.

"And why?" the redhead demanded for an answer.

"Yeah, why?" Kisame asked his buddy. "Remember? He's the only guy in high school without dating a girl once." He added.

Sakura raised her eyebrow and stared at Sasori in disbelief. "Is that true?" Sakura asked. Sasori rolled his eye, refusing to answer.

"Yes, he's the only one yeah." Deidara answered for him.

"Shut up." Sasori gritted dangerously through clenched teeth.

As Itachi was the most intelligent person among the group, everyone wanted to know the answer as well and thus Itachi finally answered. "He just has a face that says that he's in love." Itachi finally said.

Everyone stared at Sasori. "What the shit is this Itachi." The redhead argued.

The Uchiha shrugged smartly. "I just say what I noticed." He merely said.

"How much are you betting?" Kakuzu asked Itachi. "20 bucks for me."

Sasori rolled his eyes and turned to focus on the old woman who was trying to reach out for a drink on the waitress's tray.

"How about Pinky?" Hidan asked. Sakura ignored the nickname Hidan gave before stroking her chin.

"How much would I get if I were to bet?" The pink-haired girl asked.

"Double the amount you bet." Kakuzu replied.

She nodded and began looking around the gang to find everyone staring at her, waiting for her answer. Even Sasori turned his attention from the old woman to Sakura, of course… She was so much attractive then some old woman...

The girl first glanced at Itachi. _'Itachi, Konan and her fiancé are excluded so…'_

Sakura turned to Hidan and made a face. _'He's such a stupid idiot, and his face obviously shows that he's the number one playboy. So, no.'_

She turned to Kisame… _'Uh, not that I'm against people who are different colored but uh… I'll skipped him.'_

Kakuzu was staring at the paper while writing down the amount that he's going to earn if he were to win. _'Hm… From what I see, he's calculating and thrifty; he must be loaded… But will he be willing to spent his money for his wife or girlfriend?' _After a few seconds of thinking, she turned to the familiar blonde.

Deidara was grinning at her very widely, like he was hinting her something. She frowned for a moment before pondering. _'He's a great boss. A kind and happy-go-lucky person, he's totally perfect to be one's husband. But I don't know…'_

Lastly, she turned to Sasori as the redhead gazing back at her, but the weird thing was that he was not glaring at her but just staring. That's a sort of an unusual thing Sasori would do. _'Itachi-kun did mention he didn't get a girlfriend during high school but he's rather good-looking. I wonder why he didn't have one. He's great but if I were to choose him, would he fire me? I don't want to get fired!'_

"So Sakura? Who?" Itachi asked

Sakura smiled sweetly, she knew the answer in her head already. "I'll bet 20 bucks on… Kakuzu."

Everyone stared with amazement at her. "You pick that money-face instead of me? What the fuck?" Hidan argued. This must be the first setback Hidan had experienced in his life.

Kakuzu wrote down Sakura's bet before asking. "Why did you choose me?"

"You gave me a sort of weird feeling, that you'll marry first. You know, women's sixth sense." Sakura explained.

Sasori glanced at Deidara before he looked away. "I already said I'm special before." Deidara argued, realizing that Sasori was gazing at him.

Kakuzu didn't say anything but just wrote down the money Sakura bet. She gave a sidelong glance at Sasori to see his reaction; he didn't show any emotion in his reddish-brown eyes but just staring in front like a lifeless puppet.

"Konan and Pein, your turn." The two of them looked at each other, as if like they knew what the other was thinking, they immediately said the name together.

"Sasori." The innocent redhead glared at both of them.

"Nice friend you are." Sasori said sarcastically.

"We just have to agree with Itachi." Pein said. "We've been in love before, so we knew what Itachi had mentioned was quite true about you." Konan said merrily.

"No, I don't." Sasori protested like a five-years old child.

"Sasori, what about you." Kakuzu asked.

"I'm not going to bet on this." Sasori stubbornly said.

"Don't ruin the fun, come one! Take this as a sort of game we have on such a rare gathering we had together and next time we can collect the money from Kakuzu when we won on your wedding!" Konan teased.

"What-"

"Listen to her and place the bet." Pein growled.

Sasori sighed and stared at Hidan. "Since you want someone to bet on you so much, I place 50 bucks on you." The redhead said, reaching out for his wallet. Sakura could have sworn Kakuzu's eyes just flashed a bright light as he wrote down on the paper within seconds.

"Kisame?"

"I bet 5 bucks on Sasori."

"At least 10 bucks."

"What? Oh fish, fine. 10 bucks." Kisame groaned.

"What the hell, Kisame-"

"Shut the fuck up and give the money to the banker now." Hidan cut in, reaching out his hand. It seems like many people loved to interrupt Sasori whenever he was talking, and that was what Sakura noted. Everyone fished out their money and handed to Hidan as he pushed it into Kakuzu's face.

He slowly counted the amount while the rest were arguing among each other.

"Currently everyone bet one Sasori except for himself and that pink girl. He bet 50 bucks on you and she bet 20 bucks on me. Who do you want to bet?" Kakuzu muttered to his buddy. He stroked his chin like a sort of detective, looking at all his friends.

Sakura was talking to Sasori and Deidara, as she playfully punched on the blonde's shoulder while Sasori slightly smiled. Everyone knew Sasori was a sexist in school and betting on him would be very risky. But, Itachi might be right; nothing's impossible. _'And that fucking cute face might have shown some sort of signs that he had fell in love.'_ Hidan snickered evilly to himself.

"Since he bet 50 bucks on me, I should show some fucking kindness and bet 50 bucks on him too." Hidan muttered, only allowing the banker to hear. Kakuzu slightly laughed at the amount they were betting on this bet as the Jashinist pulled out a 50-dollar note and handed to Kakuzu.

It was now Hidan's turn to laugh. "You better get married first if you want to prevent Sasori from getting fucking married first. You'll be broke." Hidan remarked. Kakuzu stared at the piece of paper before he grunts.

"Then I'll get married to prevent that from happening."

"Then you'll have to pay 40 bucks to that Pinky." Hidan added.

"… Shit this."

0o0

Before they knew it, the engagement party had ended and everyone soon went their own separate ways and went home. Sakura really had many laughing periods when they started telling jokes and their incidents in high school. She never knew that her two bosses would have such a fun and hilarious side, especially for Sasori.

But soon it was over and Sasuke had finally finished his business discussion right at the moment when the party ended. Even though they did not spend quality time together, Sakura sure had fun and it's all thanks to Sasori and his gang; or she would be lonely and stuffing herself like a pig at the food's table.

Itachi brought Sakura to Sasuke before he headed to find his fiancé among the guest. "I'm sorry that I didn't spend the time with you. You must be lonely…" Sasuke said apologetically.

"Not really! And I've actually realized that Itachi-kun's high school buddies were actually my two bosses that I'm working now! So I've actually had pretty much fun today." Sakura said.

"Oh… Let me sent you back home then, it's rather late now." Sasuke said, changing the subject and grasped her hand, pulling her to his car without waiting for her responds. They walked out of his estate before Sasuke opened the car door for his girlfriend to enter as he got inside and rode towards Sakura's house.

Just as his BMW car rode down the long street, it passed by Sasori's red Dodge Neon when he was about to start his car. He silently watched the car driving as it turned smaller and smaller until it disappeared down the street. He soon regained back his composure and made a slight turn, driving into the opposite direction.

Within fifteen minutes, Sasuke stopped his car, parking by the pavement outside Sakura's house.

"Thanks for the ride." Sakura smiled sweetly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to spent the time with you." Sakura gave a small peck on Sasuke's cheek before he could continue further.

"I said it's alright. You don't have to worry, I'll see you tomorrow since it's Sunday and I don't have any work." She said merrily.

"About this Sakura… I might not be able to have a day off tomorrow, I have an important meeting with the Sabaku Sand trading company…" Sasuke said, a hint of guiltiness in his voice.

"Work is much more important. Then I'll see you next time when you're free." Sakura said before she gave a final kiss on his lips and got off the car.

"Good night." Smiling sweetly, she walked towards her house. After ensuring that she got into her house safely, Sasuke rode his car back to his estate like the wind.

0o0

Sakura threw the high heels on the ground before slumping onto her comfortable sofa. Sakura suddenly felt rather stress after meeting Sasuke's parents. It's just… wasn't her.

She had to act elegant and quiet when she's actually loud, clumsy and a playful kind of character. Does she had to act every time she met Sasuke and his parents? Must she be perfect and pretend to be what she wasn't?

The party she went just proved everything, she's showing her true self when she was having fun with Itachi's high school buddies, but when she was having a small conversation with Sasuke's mom, she couldn't even remember how tensed she was back then.

She threw her arm over her forehead, taking in a deep breath. "Sasuke is a wonderful boyfriend I ever have in my life, but what's the use of being perfect for him when I'm not even enjoying the role of it?" She continued.

Sakura shook her head and sat up straight, looking wearily around her living room. "I'm going to change now, wearing this dress is rather uncomfortable."

She changed into her pink pajamas after taking a nice hot shower and brushing her teeth nice and clean. The pinkette then climbed onto her soft and comfy bed after drying her hair, switching off her lights and crawled onto her bed.

In just a minute, she fell into a deep slumber.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's note:

Reviews are appreciated!


	9. Don't worry, there's marshmallows

[ May I ]

_When the world is closing in, and you can't breathe._

"Thank you! Do come again."

"Thanks..."

Sasori handed the money to the cashier and took the bag, before walking out of the store. He looked down at the food that both his co-workers had requested him to buy as he briskly walked towards his car in the car park lot before the hot sun could burn his skin.

The redhead finally reached the lot; he slotted his car key into the car hole and opened his door after unlocking his red Dodge Neon. But he immediately stopped halfway after hearing a rather familiar voice a few meters away at the other side. He whirled around to the direction of the voice to find a rather familiar figure that he had not seen for the entire 20 years.

"Have you called your brother yet?"

"Did you ask him when would he come back home after finishing his work?"

"Yup I did, Dad. He said he would be going straight back home after his work, around evening."

"That's great. We can finished cooking his favorite dishes with Mom by that time, and surprised him; today is his birthday after all…"

A paled brown-haired with a teenage boy at his side, both holding onto a few plastic bags in their hands and approaching to their car. Sasori's eyes were fixed on both of them as they mindlessly walked side-by-side, discussing happily about their surprised plan for tonight. The teenage boy seemed to sense that someone was watching them; he looked up, and stared at Sasori who was still staring at them.

Both of them had their father's brown eyes, both of their eyes met and none of them bothered to turn away. The teenager's father noticed his son was distracted in their conversation, and stared at him. His father noticed that his son was gazing at something and he looked into the direction as well, to find his long, lost other older son staring back at him.

Sasori slowly released the grip on his car keys; his arm went back to his side, just like the day when he found Sakura and her boyfriend by the car park. His lips slightly parted yet he didn't respond, neither did the father and his son who was on the other side of Sasori's car. Not until the paled-brown haired man turned away ruthlessly and looked at his teenage son.

"Let's go."

Sasori's father slightly pushed his teenage son forward, distracting him from Sasori as they went over to get their car. His father didn't even bother giving Sasori a second look. But the redhead still didn't left his gaze on the two, while the father had got into the vehicle, driving off within seconds right in front of Sasori's eyes, completely ignoring his presence like he was nothing to him at all.

His reddish-brown eyes stared into space, just like a lifeless puppet. He was alone for these 20 years, and in all these years, his father did not even bother and went to visit him, or taking him back from the orphanage after his jail release. Sasori worked so hard alone, just to pay for his school fees, but in the end, all his hard work did paid off; he became a boss in his own company.

But now, right before his eyes, his father; his biological father, was preparing for a family dinner to surprise his other son on his birthday. And what did his own father did on his birthday? Throwing glass bottles everywhere and abusing him. That sounds more like it.

Now he's going home, and celebrates his other son's birthday together. That sounds like a happy family to Sasori… He never knew how does being with his own family together feel like… He never did…

"Buzzzz Buzzzz..."

Sasori slowly reached out for the vibration in his pocket, taking out his vibrating phone in his pocket. He stared at the caller's name, pausing awhile before answering the call.

"Hello Sasori! Where are you now? It's almost been an hour since you left the studio yeah." The loud voice responded. "I'll be back in 10 minutes Deidara." Sasori sighed, slowly opening the car door, shutting it once he get inside. He put the bag of food next to the driver's seat.

"Sasori? Are you alright? Your voice… sounds weird yeah."

"Nothing's wrong, I'll be back soon. I'm ending the call now." Sasori said, not waiting for Deidara's answer, he cut the call and put the phone into his pocket. Without further ado, he started his car and drove towards his office's direction.

0o0

"Eh, Sasori. You're back yeah."

The other artist shuffled his feet towards the blonde's table and set the food on his desk. "I'm going up to get some fresh air… Just hand the other food to Sakura for me." With that, Sasori turned around and dragged his heavy footsteps out of the door and towards the other end of the corridor.

"Wait- What?" Deidara stood up and gazed at his friend before staring at the food. "What happened yeah…" He wondered aloud. A loud click could be hear at the project work room where Sakura was working at, the door opened wide and the pink-haired walked out of the room, taking out her gloves and glancing briefly at the food on the table.

"Sasori's back? I'm famished!" Sakura delightfully reached out the plastic bag, searching for her food and fished it out. "Yosh, I shall raped these cooki-" Sakura opened the bag of chocolate chips before looking at Deidara. The blonde had a deep frown on his face, and he seemed to be so distracted to even noticed Sakura by his side.

"Dei-Deidara?"

"Huh? Oh, Sakura. I'm sorry, I was just thinking of something yeah." Deidara explained before sitting back down on his chair and began taking out his food to eat. Sakura nodded innocently, turning around and proceeds to the room, but stopped on her track as soon as she noticed something was missing.

"Oh yeah, where Sasori?" She asked. Deidara turned to look at her before pointing up. "He went up after leaving the food here. He seems pretty off back then… I was wondering if something happened when he bought the food yeah." Deidara frowned again, glancing at his food like there was a cockroach in it.

"Up…where?" Sakura looked at the ceiling. "He's at the rooftop… Oh yeah, I didn't tell you there was one back then. The staircase is actually at the other end of the corridor." The blonde replied.

"Is he feeling sick?" Sakura asked in concerned, walking towards Deidara's desk, a cookie in her mouth. "No… I don't know how to explain his expression but-"

Deidara's phone on the table rang before he could finish his sentence. He swiftly picked up the call as Sakura stared outside the glass window. "Ah... Yes… Sure… Sure. I can check it for you yeah." Deidara put up his hand and signaled a "wait" sign while booting up his computer.

The pink-haired employee knew that her boss was busy and walked out of the room alone. She looked down the corridor and indeed, she found the door that Deidara had mentioned and walked towards it, of course, with the bag of cookie still in her hand.

She opened the door suspiciously and walked up several steps to stop for a few moments to find yet another door. Sakura cautiously opened the door and popped out her head and witnessed the vast rooftop. She turned to find the redhead standing against the railing, staring at the streets.

A mild yet cooling wind blew across Sakura's cherry-colored hair. She used her other hand to stop her hair from getting put of place as she quietly stepped out from the door, in order not to startle her boss.

She tiptoed across the balcony like a skilled ninja. Sakura finally reached to Sasori's side. His lazy brown eyes turned to look at her, mildly surprised, yet didn't say anything before looking back at the busy streets. Sakura now knew what does Deidara meant, no one can fully explained how Sasori's expression always looked like, it was always hidden behind his eyes… and only for those who really understands him to comprehend what he was truly feeling right now.

And now, little by little… Sakura started to understand a little bit on how Sasori feels every time she meets his eyes… He's feeling upset, and disappointed about something…

"Want some cookies that you've bought?"

He glanced at the bag of cookie in her hand, but turned away without answering her question. Sakura took back the cookies and placed it on the other side. She placed her hand against the railing and smiled. "When I was young, and upset over something's, my friends would always sing this song to me…" Sakura turned to Sasori to see of he was listening, and he did.

Sakura grinned and began singing.

"In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double." Sakura whistled while tapping her feet on the ground.

"Don't worry, be happy."

"The land lord says your rent is late, he may have to litigate."

"Don't worry, be happy."

"Look at me! I am happy." Sakura pointed at herself with a broad smile before looking back at the street, tapping her foot and whistling with the rhythm.

"Don't worry, be happy."

"Here I give you my phone number." She took out her phone and pointed at the pink cell phone.

"When you worry, call me; I'll make you happy."

"Don't worry, be happy."

Sakura whistled again until Sasori suddenly started to chuckle for a moment. His employee turned her attention from the streets and stared at him in amazement, before her lips turned into a huge grin. "You laughed! Are you alright now? This songs worked perfectly for me too!" She chuckled along with Sasori.

The redhead stopped laughing and turned away from Sakura. "How could I not laugh when you sang the song so hilarious… and awful?" Sasori added.

"Hey!" Sakura huffed angrily before crossing her arms, but her anger soon disappeared and stared back at him. "I don't know what happened to make you upset… or something. But I'm sure you have my phone number!" Sakura suddenly put her arm over Sasori's shoulder, which surprised him for a sudden.

"Even though you are my boss, you can call me when you have any worries or problem. Even if you aren't willing to share, I can always cheer you up by using my awesome methods I have in hand. Other than worker's relationship, we are friends!" Sakura exclaimed, winking at Sasori and giving a thumb up sign.

'_Friends… Can we be more than friends?'_

Sasori's mood immediately lightened up a bit, he gave back a weak smile and a thumbs up back. "Thank you…" He muttered before turning back and gazed at the traffic. Sakura took the bag of cookies and offered him one, the redhead accepted one and turned away, deep in thought while Sakura started whistling her own song, staring at the fluffy clouds in the blue sky.

Deidara was leaning against the door, gazing at the two of them with his phone in his hand. He smiled at the two before slightly shaking his head. "Why do I need to worry when Sakura is here?" The blonde said to himself, turning around and headed back inside the office.

0o0

"I was thinking about something… Why don't we organize a barbecue party today at the roof top yeah."

Sasori was staring at his computer before slowly turning around and raised a suspicious eyebrow at Deidara. "That's sounds fun!" Sakura grinned, entering the office after picking up a call outside.

"Yeah… and like last time. I would have to clean up all the mess after you and Hidan create the chaos." Sasori nodded sarcastically and returned back to his computer.

"Come on, I promise I will help. And this party is just for the three of us. Let take this as a celebration that Sakura had been with us for a month yeah." The blonde remarked. "And our barbeque stove is still left in the store room, we can finally make use of it again yeah." He added

Sasori stared at Sakura for a moment but returned to his computer right when she stared back. _'Is he thinking that I would not be free because I might have a date with Sasuke?'_

"I don't have any date today, I'm totally free! The three of us could spend MORE time together!" Sakura said.

"… Alright, fine-"

"Yes!" Sakura and Deidara high-fived together before glancing at Sasori.

"Right. Both of you had planned this."

"You looked upset for the past few days, so we've decided to organize this to cheer you up… I already said we have many more methods to cheer you up!" The cherry colored-haired girl smiled. Sasori kept silent for a few seconds before turning to both of them and asked.

"Have you bought marshmallows?"

0o0

"This is so delicious! Yummmm!" Sakura began licking her five fingers one by one childishly. Sasori stared at her, and slightly smiled. That was the first smile he had since the day when he laughed after Sakura sang the song.

Yes, whenever he's happy, it's because of Sakura.

"Your Marshmallows are melting." Deidara grabbed the stick and handed it to Sasori, he diverts his attention to the marshmallow and ate it like a 3-years old child. Deidara chuckled but the other artist ignored him and focused on his beloved marshmallows.

"I'll get more yeah. It looks… tempting. I'll drop by at the nearest convenient shop." Deidara stood up from his chair and approached down the stairs without waiting for their answer. And in a flash, Sakura dragged her chair and sat beside Sasori. He was rather calm at first, but was shocked after realizing their distance from each other were rather small…

"Sasori, please don't mind me asking, but why were you upset on that day?"

_"Mum said that your Daddy was arrested by the police, he's a bad guy! He had injured you so much, so he is arrested by the police."_

He stopped eating, recalling the incident when he met his abusive father and his other own son, but he stopped thinking right at that moment and continued eating. Sakura scratched her chin, deep in thought.

Sakura knew that Sasori didn't want to answer her questions, so she immediately changed the subject. "Itachi-kun said that you didn't have a girlfriend… Is it true?" She stated the obvious.

A small vein popped out on his temple, but Sakura didn't notice it. "I can't believe you don't have one! Thinking back… do you tend to bully girls? That's why no girls like you? And during valentine's proms, no girls were willing to have a dance with you? Even your female teachers picked on you?" Sakura blurted out, but it was too late. She covered her mouth and laughed innocently.

"Deidara told you all of these… right?" Sasori pulled out the last marshmallow on the stick roughly with his mouth.

"Er… D-Do you l-like anyone in your life before?" Sakura quickly asked, changing the subject to prevent her boss from flaring up. Sasori slightly regained his composure, taking the last few marshmallows in the bag and poked it onto the stick.

"I'll take it as a yes then. Then why aren't you going out with her? Or are you waiting for that someone?"

Sasori slightly coughed a little, looking at her with both of his questioning brown eyes. "And… why?" he asked. "I'm just very puzzled why you don't have a girlfriend-"

"Ah… You're really nosey." Her boss protested, refused to answer her question, turning away. "I'm just worried about you! Even though you're my boss. I do care about your future! I wouldn't want my friend to live his whole life lonely and no one to spent the rest of his life with him!" Sakura urged.

"Tell me who is it! Maybe I can help you!" Sakura said excitedly, waiting for Sasori to answer her question.

"You would?" Sasori looked at her surprisingly, yet she still doesn't know she was the one that he was referring to all along.

"Yup! I'm sure the person would be the most fortunate girl in her life." Sakura grinned.

"Hn. You don't have to flatter your boss, you won't get promoted in any way."

"I'm serious! If I could pick again… I would…" Sakura paused for a moment but she looked away, grabbing a grilled chicken wing and started eating, like nothing had happened. The redhead stared at her, and right at the moment, her mood immediately changed, she turned and faced Sasori.

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me who. But I can promise you, if you were to confess to her. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't regret it… She probably love you just like how much you love her."

His brown eyes were locked with her green and determined eyes. Sasori smiled, he raised his arms and put out his pinky. And for once did Sakura just witness Sasori's childish side as he added. "Pinky…Promise?"

Sakura blinked several times, she stared at his adorable smile.

'_Why is my heart… beating so fast?'_

"Er… Yea-Yeah! Promise! Pin-Pinky P-Promise!" Sakura stuttered, her face slight turned pink. She put out her little finger and entangled with his small finger as well. And for these whole 27 years, Sasori felt so unusually happy for the first time in his life.

"What are you two doing yeah?"

Both of them stopped what they were doing and turned around to find Deidara staring weirdly at them, one of his hands was holding onto two bags of marshmallows, the other was a camera.

"Oh we are just-"

"Ahem! Hand that bag of marshmallows over. Why did you take so long? The store is just across the street." Sasori muttered, returning to his usual self. Sakura glanced at Sasori and slightly smiled.

"I bought it ten minutes ago, I was just finding my camera in my car so it took quite a while. Say, let's take a picture together!" Deidara raised his camera and pointed at it. One of them frowned while the other grinned happily.

"Yes!" "No."

Sakura and Sasori turned and faced each other. Sasori was about to protest but Sakura easily beats him to it. "Come on! This would be the first picture I'm taking with you guys! Don't tell me you're camera shy…" She smirked.

"I'm not, and I was just-"

"Guys! Say cheese!"

Deidara ignored entirely on what both of them were arguing and placed the camera on the table and set a timer. Deidara rushed and stand behind Sasori and Sakura, who were already sitting rather close together. The blonde then squeezed both of them as close as possible.

Sasori was rather shocked when his arms slightly brushed against Sakura, but the pink-haired didn't seem to mind, she raised her stick of fish-balls and waved at the camera, grinning ear to ear.

The redhead glanced at her, she's happy, and is she's happy, he would be happy too.

Ever since the eventful day when he met his father, he was upset. But now, he had almost completely forgotten about and just focused on the girl beside him. The pinkette that always makes him smile regardless of whatever thing she did.

"SNAP!"

One week had past since Sakura had her last date with Sasuke.

Two weeks had past since Sakura was finally able to understand more about Sasori, but she's still learning every single day.

Three weeks had past since Sasori knew Sakura had a boyfriend.

One month had past since the day when Sakura met Sasori at the petrol station.

And finally, 20 years had past… since the day when Sasori had actually fallen for this pink angel; Sakura.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

Yup, I knew that the last chapter there wasn't much or even any SasoSaku moments . But from now on, I'm going to fast forward everything and into the SasoSaku moments, and no more stupid, crappy and random stuffs. So do watch out for the next future chapters, because… -It's Coming!-

Thanks for all the reviews you gave me. I really…really love it!

-Pocky


	10. Ramen was her cure

[ May I ]

_May I love you_

"I'll knock off early today. I have some things to do later."

Sasori grabbed his wallet on the table and his coat, heading for the door without waiting for Deidara's answer. Sakura was still busy doing her work in the room to not realize Sasori had already left.

He got into his car swiftly and drove it to the mall and would usually glanced at his watch every time he stopped at the traffic light.

He entered the building and into the toy's section, Sasori browsed through a few toy cars on the shelves before his eyes laid on a bright green toy sports car. He slightly smiled and nodded, reaching out for the box and stared at it. Out of nowhere, a young sales girl went over to Sasori and politely bowed.

"May I help you?" She smiled; Her smile gave Sasori the creeps as he forced a smile back.

"Ah, yes. Please wrapped this up for me."

They went over to the counter after he had picked the wrapping paper for the gift. The sales girl walked to the empty counter and began wrapping while Sasori patiently waited for her to finished wrapping. Not because of how impatient he was, but Sasori noticed that the salesgirl was wrapping the gift rather slowly. And even once or twice did that lady sneak a peek at him.

Time passed slowly and the lady was still slowly cutting the scotched tape. Sasori silently prayed that some one on earth would just come and helped him out. He's really tired of waiting already.

"Hey Sasori! Didn't expect to see you here."

As if his prayers were answered, he turned to find the familiar tall man approaching towards him and gave him a light punch on his shoulder. "Kisame?"

"Who are these gifts for?" Kisame pointed. The lady looked up to glance at Sasori, but he caught her staring at him. The salesgirl immediately averted her eyes and looked down, starting to quicken her pace.

"For a kid." Sasori responded.

"A kid? Whoa, when did you have a son?" Kisame blurted out without any care for their surrounding. Sasori could have sworn that he saw the lady jerked for a moment before angrily tearing the tape into half.

"Hn… yeah." Sasori muttered, seeming to get what Kisame was doing.

"That would be 25 dollars. Thank you." The saleswoman pushed the gift to Sasori on the counter. The redhead smirked and took the gift, walking out of the store, Kisame following behind him.

"Thanks a lot, if it wasn't for you. I would have to stuck there maybe for another half an hour." Sasori mumbled.

"Ha, actually I was browsing through some stuff when I saw you at the counter. Your looks just shows that you needed help urgently." Kisame said.

"Thanks again. I need to hurry back now." Sasori gave a light slap on Kisame's bulky shoulder.

"Bye." Kisame slightly smirked and waved him off as he observed him walking towards the lift and pressing the buttons impatiently.

"I wonder who is the gift for anyway…" Kisame shrugged and entered the building once more.

0o0

"Hmmmm…" Deidara was focusing his attention on his mini size clay bird, _'The wings need some more adjustment.'_ He thought silently to himself, but nether less to say, he's still very proud of his art.

"Art is fleeting yeah."

Out of the blue, Deidara could hear a sound of vibration in the room. He knitted his eyebrows as he searched in the entire room to find what was making the buzzing noise. No, not his phone. Not his computers. Not his-

Deidara spotted the vibration on Sasori's table. The blonde smirked. "Sasori is careless today."

He reached out for the phone on the table and looked at the caller's name. "Tsunade?" Deidara answered the call, but without even speaking a word, the caller blasted loud sentences and comments without even bothering to know who picked up the call.

"Sasori! The party would start in 15 minutes! Where the hell are you? Don't tell me you're still at work now! Or I'll really beat the crap out of you!"

After a long pause, Deidara clear his throat and spoke. "I'm sorry, but Sasori had accidentally left his phone in the office, he left about an hour ago. I suppose he might be on the way to your destination yeah." Deidara mumbled.

"Oh." There was a long pause.

"Alright! I'm sorry for your disturbance, go on. Go on with your work now." The mood of the voice changed entirely, from the vicious one to a kinder and gentle one. Deidara shivered. "It's alright yeah."

"Granny Tsunade! Hurry up!" Deidara could hear a soft yet clear voice behind the caller.

"I'm coming! All right, thanks. Bye." The caller cut the call. Deidara stared at the blank phone screen.

"Where the hell is Sasori going yeah." Deidara wondered aloud.

In the next second, a loud crash came out from the project room, Deidara straightened himself on his chair, staring in horror at the room.

"Sakura! Are you alright?" The blonde rushed to his feet, and right at that moment, Sakura flung opened the door with a phone in her hand.

"I'll be there by 15 minutes. YES 15 MINUTES!" Sakura exclaimed, locking the project door behind her and rushed past Deidara as if he was invisible.

"I'm… not at work of course! Yes! I'm currently in a cab now! Yes Tsunade! I've bought his gift already. Of course I remembered the time, I already said I'm on a taxi now…"

Sakura rushed down the stairs and run towards her front desk as she grabbed her handbag and a plastic bag with a card sticking onto it. Deidara followed behind her with Sasori's phone still in his hand as he watched the panicking girl exited from the office.

"Tsunade… Tsunade?" The blonde stared at the phone and at the girl with bubblegum-colored hair running towards the street, still talking endlessly on her phone while waving frantically for a taxi.

"Could it be…" Deidara said, he nodded to himself before rushing down the stairs as well, locking the office door after taking all his stuffs.

0o0

"Dammit! Why can't I get a cab when I needed one?" Sakura impatiently tapped her foot while watching the taxi packed with passengers drove past her. She stared at her phone to realize she don't have much time left…

"Ms Haruno. Need a lift?"

Sakura stared at the black car approaching towards her, the blonde pointed at the back of his car as Sakura gave an ever-apologetic smile.

"I would love too! But I thought you would have a meeting in half an hour time?" Sakura asked. Deidara waved her off.

"The client had request for a later meeting. I can spare you about 2 to 3 hours. How bout' that yeah." Deidara gave a seductive wink.

Her face almost turned as pink like her hair, she grabbed onto her bags and got into the car without hesitation. Sakura told the address and Deidara immediately sped off.

"That place… Isn't it an orphanage?" Deidara asked, glancing once in a while at Sakura who was sitting beside the driver's seat.

"Yup. There is a kid's birthday today. Tsunade had organized a party for him and I was clearly invited. Not that wasn't willing to go, but I was really lost track of time." Sakura rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Tsunade…" Deidara glanced down at Sasori's phone in his pocket.

"Oh, where did Sasori go? I didn't see him when I knocked off." Sakura asked.

"He went somewhere yet he didn't mention it yeah." The blonde replied, after turning to the left and down the streets. They reached after a few turns and the car finally stopped right outside a huge gate.

A familiar red Dodge Neon had already parked itself right beside the gate as well. Both of them almost knew whose car it belongs to when they stared at each other in amazement. Sakura grabbed her stuffs and alighted from the car, followed by Deidara.

"The plate number…" Deidara frowned and stared at the gate.

Right on the cue, the gate opened, revealing a blonde lady with her bangs parted in the middle and fall down the sides of her face. Her long, blonde hair was tied into two ponytails.

Deidara stared at her blouse, which is closed rather low, revealing her sizeable cleavage. "Whoa..." He mumbled.

"You're late by 3 minutes." Tsunade grumbled before glancing at Deidara and his car.

"You said you were on a Taxi." Tsunade turned her attention to Sakura. "Er… you see, the cab's tire punctured, and then-"

"Sakura-Chan! Ino-Chan!"

Deidara blinked once again, staring at a small girl skipping towards Sakura, hugging her leg. "Hello Hikari!" Sakura smiled, mentally glad that this girl saved her life from Tsunade's clutches.

"Oh! This is my boss. Deidara. He's not Ino-Chan! Ino-Chan is busy at her shop so she would not be visiting today." Sakura said hesitantly, glancing at Deidara for his reaction.

"Hello Deidara-Chan!" Hikari smiled and waved.

"Deidara-Kun would be better." Sakura whispered.

"Oh I see…"

"So you were the one that picked up Sasori's call?" Tsunade blurted out. Both of them stared at the female blonde.

"Sasori?" They both said at once.

"Sakura-Chan is here!" A few kids yelled inside the huge orphanage. Sasori, who was already inside, frowned.

"Sakura?" He looked out of the gate, to find the pinkette and the blonde staring back at him.

"Sasori?" Both of them said in unison.

"Sakura? Deidara?"

The two of them entered the building, followed by Tsunade and Hikari. The trio stared at each other, waiting for one of them to speak up. And finally, Deidara did. He took out Sasori's phone and handed it to him.

"You left it in the office today yeah. So I came here to give it back as I thought Sakura might have known where you are." Sasori stared at it, before taking it from his hand.

"I didn't notice it until you gave it to me." He muttered.

"Well, I was here because I'm supposed to be here." Sakura said. She lifted up the plastic bag and walked over to a little boy with a bright green party hat on his head.

"Sakura-Chan!" He exclaimed.

"Happy Birthday! Here a gift that I promised I would buy for you the other day." Sakura merrily handed the gift over and the little boy delightfully accepted it before running to his friends to flaunt his gifts.

"I'm here because I should be here too." Sasori replied back, after realizing the other two was staring at Deidara.

"I should probably get going since I've done my mission yeah." Deidara shrugged, preparing to leave. But Sakura grabbed his hand and stopped him. Sasori's eyes widened as he stared at Sakura's grip on Deidara's wrist.

"Why don't you join us? The more the merrier!" Sakura smiled sweetly. Sasori slightly pouted, but it goes unnoticed to everyone. Tsunade came over, with a huge smile plastered on her face. "Yeah, the more the merrier!"

"Uh, sure!" Deidara replied, the two girls then brought him over to the kids and started introducing to each and everyone, completely ignoring the redhead that was standing all alone. "Am I being ignored?" Sasori grumbled.

"Sasori-kun! Can we join them?" Hikari tugged on his shirt, shyly playing with her ponytail. He slightly smiled.

"Let's go." He said, allowing Hikari to pull him towards the group of children's and the adults.

0o0

"Why aren't you joining them?" Tsunade approached Sasori who was sitting alone on a bench while Deidara and Sakura were playing with the toy car that Sasori had bought with the kids.

Sasori just shook his head; Tsunade sat beside him on the bench and ruffled his brick red hair like back then when she took care of him.

"You're still the same old Sasori I met…" Tsunade smiled while Sasori grumbled and look ahead, staring at the other two who were laughing together with the kids.

The blonde looked at him, before she breaks the awful silence. "Did you found the girl that you had been looking for all these years?" She asked. He never answered, but he didn't ignore the question as well.

"I've found the girl." His hazel eyes stared at his feet.

"But I can't find a place in her heart." He mumbled softly. The blonde almost missed out what he had mumbled but was able to make out what he was saying. She could sense sort of sadness and disappointment in his voice.

Tsunade turned to stare at Sakura. Both of them knew who they were talking about, she knew that he knew who the girl was. Tsunade gave a pat on his back before she suddenly stood up, startling Sasori for a moment.

"I almost forgot." She only said, before running back into the building. Sasori watched the blonde sprinting back. _'Granny still can run…'_ He silently thought to himself. Within seconds, she rushed back with a rather huge box in her hand, slumping back down on her seat. "Here!"

"This…" Sasori knitted his eyebrows, finding the box rather familiar. Tsunade handed the red box to him as he curiously took it and place it on his lap, opening the lid to find all his stuffs in the box.

"You left it here years ago, forgetting to bring it back with you. I always failed to give it back to you when you dropped by." She explained. Sasori looked over through his stuff, his photos, papers and all sort of crazy stuff he had during his younger days. He took out a piece of photo stuck at the corner and brush away the dust on it.

"Hn…"

"Look at this, all of you were throwing vegetables when young, now everyone had lead their own life and even start their own family. Time past really fast…" Tsunade twinkled as she pointed at the photo, reminiscing about the days when they were little

"It's as though I'm growing old already." The female blonce sighed

0o0

"I still don't get it." Sakura muttered, standing by Deidara's side, watching and smiling all away while the kids were playing.

"Don't get what?" The artist responded.

"How did Tsunade-sama met Sasori, or vice versa?" She said. Deidara shrugged in response.

"Sasori didn't mentioned much about his past or family, all I knew was that he live in an orphanage since young. And I supposed… It should be this one since everyone seemed to know him quite well yeah." Deidara stroked his chin, observing their surrounding.

"He's and… orphan?" Sakura said in surprise, glancing at her boss who was sitting at the bench with Tsunade.

"He always knocked off early once in a while…" He noted, nodding his head to himself again.

"What about you? Yeah?" He asked. Sakura fiddled with the red sweet wrapper on her hand, making it into a small ball.

"Tsunade is my mum's good friend, I came here to visit them regularly after my previous job." Sakura said.

"I remember!"

Sakura and Deidara turned to the other two at the bench when Tsunade's voice had caught their attention. Sasori was holding onto a photo while Tsunade was laughing and pointing at something in it. Sakura began sprinting towards the two, followed by Deidara.

"What's that?" Sakura pointed out. Sasori raised up his head in bewilderment, glimpsing at the photo before stuffing it into the box.

"Nothing." He merely said.

"Whoa, was that a stuff bear I saw?" Deidara reached out for the toy in the box before Sasori slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch my things." He warned him, closing the box with the cover and placing it onto his lap.

"Cheh. Old guy playing stuff toy…" Deidara teased, but like what all three had expected, Sasori ignored him.

0o0

"Buh Bye!"

The children waved back to the trio as they exiting the gate. Tsunade gave a pat to the three of them.

"Do visit when you're free." She reminded.

"We will!" Sakura gave her signature thumbs up. The older blonde could only give a smile.

The gate closed and they could still hear the laughter of the kids even when it closed. Sasori walked to his car with the box still in his hand, Deidara and Sakura stood right outside the entrance, but before Deidara could speak, his phone rang.

"Deidara speaking yeah. Oh?" Deidara looked at his watch and gave a slap on his forehead.

"I'm sorry! Ok, I'll be there in 5 minutes. Thank you." Deidara cut the call, glancing at Sakura.

"It's okay! I can walk up to the next street to get a cab. Thank you for driving me here anyway." Sakura said.

"But-"

"Meeting your client is more important. I just need to walk some distance only." Sakura interrupted, pushing him to his car.

"Fine." Deidara slammed shut his car door and put on his seat belts. "I'll go first. See you yeah." Deidara said, Sakura waved back as the car sped off and turned into another street.

Sakura whirled around, to find Sasori standing right beside his car with the keys in his hand, staring at her.

"You want a ride?" Sakura blinked before regaining back her composure.

"Yeah, sure!" She said, getting into the car.

Sakura tugged onto her seat belt, but it got stuck suddenly. After Sasori finished putting on his seat belt, he glanced at the desperate bubblegum-colored hair girl, pulling the seat belt to fit into the small thin hole.

"I'll help you." Sasori put his arm to the other side while the other behind the seat as he started trying to pull the stuck seat belt.

Sakura could feel back of her neck grew warm. 'What's this feeling again?' She thought. With a final pull, Sasori stretched the seat belt and tugged it into the hole before returning to his own seat.

"Thank you." She tried to remain as calm as possible. Sasori just gave a nod, before starting his car and drove it to the same direction where Deidara had gone.

"Which direction should I go?" He asked. "Er, you can turn-"

"Growwwwwwwwwwl…"

They paused for a while, before both of them stared at Sakura's stomach.

"I guess you didn't eat just now." Sasori said.

"I was busy doing some stuff, so I didn't get to touch any food." Sakura mumbled in embarrassment.

"Do you want to eat something before I send you home?" He continued. Sakura nodded. She felt extremely awkward, and rather uneasy to be sitting in a car with Sasori alone.

She didn't felt like that even when she first gets onto Sasuke or Deidara's car. But where did theses tingling feeling come from?

"Hey! Since we are near the Konoha streets. We should try out their Ramen!" Sakura pointed at the huge sign just a few meters away from the car, trying hard to ignore the weird sensation she was feeling. Sasori slightly smiled.

"Lead the way then."

Sasori parked their car right outside the shop. They got off their car and headed to the store. Sakura stared and slightly skimmed through the huge board right outside the Ramen shop. "Today's our lucky day! There's a Ramen Buffet!"

"Ramen? Buffet? This is the first time I even heard of this" He said.

"Is there any more seats for the Ramen Buffet?" Sakura walked forward to the counter and asked.

"You're lucky, there's last two seats left." The waitress said.

Sakura rubbed her hand in glee before grabbing Sasori's wrist and pulled him into the restaurant. Sasori followed behind, feeling slightly tensed when her hand brushed against his. He was surprised at how soft her touch was, and in some way, he thought how did Deidara felt when she grabbed his hand a few hours ago. It's just a sort of weird feeling that Sasori himself couldn't describe.

"Naruto!" Sakura waved as they entered into the room while the waitress exited and proceed on with her own things. A blonde chef was putting some spices into a ramen bowl before turning around to stare at her, breaking into a huge smile. "Sakura!"

Both of them walked towards to the two empty seats, and along the table, there were countless of people waiting for their food, tapping their feet and the chopstick on the table.

"What is going on?" Sasori nudged Sakura.

"Here's the ramen! And the buffet will end in an hour time. Enjoy your meal!" Naruto yelled, before exiting the room.

In a second, everyone grabbed onto their bowl, slurping their soup and eating their noodle, only Sasori was stunned and sitting there staring at his bowl of hot ramen.

"Come on, what are you waiting for! You better eat fast!" Sakura mumbled, with all the food in her mouth. Sakura then placed her empty bowl on the table, within a second, a waitress placed another hot bowl of ramen onto her table and she began eating like a hungry cow.

"Actually…" Sakura mumbled, wiping the oily soup stain on her mouth with the back of her hand. "My good friend, Naruto, had opened this restaurant not long ago. Actually he creates this ramen buffet also. It's like a competition, Everyone is challenged to eat as many bowl of ramen as possible, and for the person who ate the least bowl of ramen, will pay for the person who ate the most bowl of ramen, including his own as well, while the rest that didn't win or lose, would just have to pay the regular entrance fee for the buffet. It's affordable, and great as well!" Sakura explained, finishing drinking the last drop of soup in the bowl and grabbing another bowl of ramen.

Sasori turned to look at the pile of bowls that the other had ate, before staring at his untouched noodle. He grabbed the bowl and began eating like Sakura, or even faster. "You seem rather professional in this…" Sasori mumbled, pausing once in a while to get some air after drinking the soup.

"You'll get what I meant after eating all of these. Whenever I'm down, I would come here and eat all these bowls of delicious ramen! It sort of helped me to relieve stress and forgets any unhappy incidents that troubles me." Sakura said.

Sasori stopped eating, putting his bowl down onto the table and stared at her. "Do you come here often?" Sasori asked. This time, Sakura didn't answer, instead, she continued stuffing the food in her mouth like she had not eaten for weeks.

_'She seemed to come here a often. Is she upset all these days? Is she always hiding her tears behind those smiles? Is it all because if...'_ Thousands of questions clouding in his mind.

"I suggest you shouldn't be staring at me, but instead, you should be watching out for the hole in your pocket." Sakura merrily said. Sasori turned away, realizing that he had been caught. He quickly grabbed the next bowl on the table and began eating like the others.

0o0

"This is great!" Sakura patted her stomach, giving a huge sigh. "

I can't imagine such a small girl like you could eat 26 bowls of ramen in an hour." Sasori shook his head.

"You should count your self rather luck already. If that guy ate just two more bowl than you did, you would have lost already." Sakura said.

"You know the chef?" Sasori opened the car door after unlocking it, followed by Sakura. She got into the car after Sasori started the red Dodge Neon.

"Yup, he's Naruto; my table partner for the whole year in Biology class. He's really clumsy, actually like me too. And our experiment always failed terribly." Sakura chuckled as she recalled her school days.

Sasori slightly smirked. Somehow, he remembered the first time he met her in the hospital. Tripping over the machine's wire even when it was rather obvious that the wires were already there.

"Turn right. And… The third one." Sakura pointed forward.

Sasori stopped the car right outside her house. She took of her seat belt before glancing at Sasori. "Actually… Can you help me with something?" Sakura mumbled. He frowned, but nether less to say, he agreed even though he didn't know what was it.

Sakura's green eyes glittered when Sasori agreed to help her. They got of the car after Sasori parked his car outside her house. Sakura fumbled with her keys, after finding the right one, she slotted the key inside and unlocked the door, entering the dim-lit hall.

Sakura switched on the lights. Sasori was rather surprised by the clean and neat environment. He trusted Sakura to be a clean freak as well, but he never thought she was so well organized after looking at her desk in the project room a few times.

"Just find a seat, I'll get something." Sakura said, entering the kitchen room.

Sasori looked around, his brown lazy eyes turned to a few frames on a round table. He slowly walked towards the table, staring at the framed up photos. The first frame with two glittery words stuck at the bottom 'Best Friends'. Sakura was in her graduated uniform, taking a picture with Hinata, Ino, Tenten and a few other girls. Sasori noted, it was actually Sakura that had the biggest grin among all of the girls. The smile was the most beautiful one.

Next, there was a family portrait. Sakura along with her two parents, standing side by side. Sasori could easily know how Sakura treasure her relationship with her parents.

In the other frame, it was the photo that they took during they barbeque party. Deidara must have given the printed picture a few days ago after the party. Recalling the entire party, his lips slightly turned into a small smile.

Sasori raised his head as Sakura placed a piece of chocolate cake on a table, she handed a small fork to Sasori and forced him to sit down.

"Could you test this cake for me? I wanted to ask Ino and test if it was nice, but she's been busy these few days." Sakura said. Sasori stared at the cake suspiciously.

"If you're afraid that you would get poison or stomachache after eating, don't need to worry. I had eaten a slice a day ago and nothing had happen to me." Sakura assured him.

"Then why did you ask for my opinion?" He asked.

"If I were to test out myself, I would not know if it taste great or if there is anything to add or improve." Sakura said.

He picked up the fork and poked through the cake, taking a rather large bite. Sakura clasped her hand together and formed a bridge for her chin to rest on. "How is it?" She asked eagerly.

"Not bad. Taste rather good." He mumbled, taking a last bite.

"Yes!" Sakura turned both of her hands into a fist and shouted excitedly. Sasori stared at her weirdly before putting down the fork.

"Why did you suddenly made a cake for no reason? Are you going to sell it or open a cake shop?" He asked.

"Nope! Sasuke's birthday is around the corner and I wanted to plan a surprise, so I decided to make a birthday cake for him." Sakura said, picking up the empty plate and headed to the kitchen.

Sasori paused momentarily before standing up from his seat, indicating that he wanted to leave.

"Anyway, thank you for being me guinea pig, I shall treat you to dinner next time." Sakura shouted from the kitchen.

"Just finished your job on time and anything is alright. I'll get going now." Sasori said, trudging towards the door.

"Thanks anyway." She repeated again. Sasori didn't reply, but gave a last glance at her before he headed back to his car. He drove off in a second, watching Sakura walking into her house in the rear mirror.

After a few turns, Sasori finally stopped at a red light. The box that he placed on the passenger seat slightly shift forwards after the slight impact. He turned his gaze and stared at the red box.

"Beep!"

A rather impatient car horned behind, He looked at the traffic light to realize it had turned green; he stepped on his accelerator and made a full speed ahead, heading back to his home.

0o0

Sasori slumped down onto his bed, with the box right next to him. He stared at it for a moment, before deciding to open the lid and inspect the things inside.

He rummaged through a few stuffs, like some exams papers he had took when he was in the orphanage. He always got the highest score in class and his so-called rival; Sora would always challenge him and wanted to win everything against him. But sometimes he failed rather miserably.

He looked through the things again. And randomly, he took out the two pieces of paper that was stuck at the corner of the box as well. The paper had slightly turned yellow and the edges were dented but the words on the paper were rather clear.

'_I like Pink, and you can call me anything but Pinky. I am 5 years old. My hair colour is naturally pink. I like to eat Ramen, and anything with strawberry on it. I also like to play with my small and cute collectable furniture set! My dream is to become, a furniture designer!'_

"I thought I lost it. Didn't know that I actually left it here." He said out loud.

'_It was the strength that kept me going all these years…' _

He covered back the lid, grabbing the box and placed it under his desk along with the two pieces of paper that he kept years ago. Sasori walked towards his worktable that was pilled with documents and books. The redhead pushed the heavy box under the desk and headed into the bathroom, getting ready for the night.

Sasori stared at the glass mirror, holding onto a brush. He often pondered to himself why didn't he tell Sakura he was the little boy that she saved way back long time ago?

But if he did, will it change everything? Will she remember the little red-haired boy in the picture if he actually showed the old photograph he had, when Sakura pestered him in order to see the photo back at the orphanage? Will she actually acknowledge that it was him?

Will she even remember that boy that didn't even had much influence in her life but when actually the girl did a huge impact to the boy's life?

He rather kept quiet and be all alone by himself than to be disappointed, realizing that in Sakura's heart, he was nothing but just a normal friend and her boss.

He was afraid, afraid that he could even lost the chance in being friends with Sakura after telling about his feelings. Because deep down, he already knew that all Sakura had in her heart was that Uchiha guy. Sasuke Uchiha.

Yeah… Sasori shook his head and grabbed his toothpaste on the shelf. He wouldn't get a chance. No doubt.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's note:

I noticed that I would often reply to reviews rather late now and then, even though I really love to read them. They are really awesome! But whenever I don't have time to reply to all… I thought it might make readers much more happier to see more updates then just review replies.

Ok. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and reviews are always gladly appreciated. :D

Next chapter... o.o


	11. Penny, Chocolate and Art

[ May I ]

_May I be your shield._

"So you are Sasori?" The woman, with an age just suitable to be his mother said as she ruffled his red hair while he looked down at his feet.

"Thank you so much for your help, I've promise my little cherry blossom that he'll definitely be right under your care." The familiar female said. Sasori immediately recognized her as the girl's mother that he met a week ago.

"He certainly be a handsome man when he grows up." The woman then put her hand down and introduced herself.

"I'm Tsunade, I'm in charge of bringing you back and taking care of you. You would need a place to stay." Tsunade smiled. Sasori blinked before the other female kneeled down beside Sasori and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Take care. I'll send your regards to Pinky okay?" She gave an apologetic smile to Tsunade while she took hold of the child's hand.

"I'll settle the hospital documents, you should leave for the airport now, they should be waiting for you." Tsunade said while waving the other adult off.

She nodded and waved back at both of them, but before Sasori could respond, she turned and headed straight to the lift while Sasori was lead to the counter. His head was still being bandaged up and his inability of speaking was still an impact on his life.

After signing some documents, they took the lift and went to the car park.

During the trip to somewhere Sasori's didn't know, Tsunade began chattering and talking in her car while Sasori was seating at the passenger seats, listening attentively, but for a few moment, they finally came to a stop she turned, giving a smile.

"We've reached!"

Sasori looked up and nodded, opening the door right beside him and alighted the car while Tsunade fumbled onto her car keys and put it in her pocket, holding onto the preteen's hand with her other hand.

"Let's go, you'll meet many new friends!" Tsunade grinned and lead him to a huge building.

Both of them entered a gate, and behind it, there was a large field. Children were playing tag or running around, climbing onto monkey bars, sliding down slides. It was just like a children's paradise, a place where it's called playground.

"This is an orphanage." Tsunade tried to force a smile at Sasori. The redhead did not give any reaction. His eyes were fixed at the children playing at the field.

"Everyone!" The adult let go of his hand and shouted, waving for everyone to come over to where she was. Immediately everyone stopped what they were doing and looked right at where Tsunade was standing. Sasori just stood right beside her, unknowing what was currently going on.

"It's a redhead!" One yelled

"He look so cute!" a few girls squealed.

Everyone gathered around the two of them as Tsunade bent down to accommodate to the children's height.

"This little boy is called Sasori, and I trust everyone would take good care of him righte? As you can see that he's injured so boys, no rough games allowed." Tsunade warned and waved her finger at them.

"Girls and boys, please introduce yourself like how I had taught everyone of you; the friendship handshake. Sasori, I'll be inside the building to settle some stuff. I'll be back in a moment." Tsunade said before rushing into her office, which was just in the building.

"Hello! I'm Temari!" A little blonde girl, with her hair tied into 4 spiky ponytails. She took out her hand and expected Sasori to accept it.

Sasori slowly reached out his hand and shook it. Temari smiled cheerfully, feeling glad that he had accepted her handshake.

"So how did you get injured?" A boy that was about the same age as Sasori's, asked coolly as he crossed his arms.

Sasori did not respond, he couldn't respond at all; He had lost his ability to speak after all.

"Humph! Why are you not answering? Trying to act cool?" The same little guy scowled angrily, not knowing that he was trying to act cool himself.

Sasori did not react, or bothered to answer but unluckily for him, the boy had lost his temper.

"Don't think that you had that Granny Tsunade as your support you can ignore me like that!" The raven-haired boy raised his arms and was about to land his punch onto Sasori's face when Temari stopped him.

"Hey! You don't have to be mean! Remember? He is injured!" Temari shouted. Some children had run to find Tsunade while some standing at the side, watching the commotion and did not know what to do.

"Go away Temari! That guy can't get away without replying my questions!" The bad tempered boy argued back and shoved Temari away. She was pushed to his side but slipped and fell.

But right at that moment, someone caught her, preventing her from falling. Temari looked up to realize that Sasori was the one that caught her arm, stopping her from falling just in time.

"Hey you! Come bac-" Before the boy could finish his sentence, Tsunade had stomped towards the boy and pulled his ears, speaking to the child with her scary yet tender voice.

"My dear Sora, did you forget what I said a few minutes ago?" Tsunade said, with a huge scary smile plastered on her face, pulling his ears till it turned dark red. "I'm sorry!" Sora begged as he cried in pain.

The principal threw him down without mercy and approached to both of them.

"Are you two alright?" Tsunade questioned. Temari stood up brushed the dirt on her dress and smiled.

"I'm okay! What about you?" Temari turned and face Sasori.

"I'm sorry Sasori." Tsunade placed her hand on his shoulder before standing up and stared at the kids around her.

"You little guys listen carefully. Sasori was hurt because his father did this to him…"

Tsunade spoke further while Temari glanced at the emotionless boy.

"He had lost the ability to speak. So he wasn't able to be like every single one of you. Please do not tease him and make fun of him. He needs every one of your care and help."

A few children began talking to themselves, like spreading some juicy gossip among each other. Sora then looked away, showing no guilt on his face. Tsunade gave a loud slap onto Sora's back.

"Friends?" She repeated.

Sora chocked and glared at Sasori, but soon after, he gave a huge sigh and unwillingly took out his hand. Sasori looked at it before he slightly smiled, taking his hand out and accepted his handshake. Not long, the rest began following Sora.

"Hello Sasori! I'm Haruka!"

"Yo, I'm Takeshi!"

0o0

"Who's that guy?" Takeshi nudged Sora. A man with white, long and spiky hair entered the building along with Tsunade.

"I've seen him before… Err, once or twice." Temari said.

Sasori raised his head and looked briefly for a moment before returning to his work.

"Jiraiya, it had been two weeks since I have to remind you to sign that document."

"I know, I know." Both Jiraiya and Tsunade were walking to the office. He would wave to a few kids as they past by, not until when he noticed Sasori at the corner with a few others.

"Who's that?" Jiraiya used his head to signal at Sasori. Tsunade sighed.

"Sasori. He came here about a year ago. And on that year, he lost his ability to speak while his father was charged guilty for abusing him. He was released two months ago but he never came to pick him up" Jiraiya raised his two eyebrows.

"If I had to be honest, I rather his father to leave him alone than to continue abusing him if he had the chance."

"I came here a few months ago before I left town, I don't remember seeing him." Jiraiya pushed opened the door after passing the huge field.

"He's not very socialized. Sasori often kept to himself and regularly hid himself and refused to come out from his room. If it wasn't for Temari and the other kids, I guess you wouldn't notice him at all."

Jiraiya dragged a chair and sat right in front of Tsunade's desk. She took two mugs and made coffee. She placed the two mugs on her desk and approached to her seat.

"If I were to say that there's a way to heal him. Would you do it?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course! I've search couples of doctor yet they refused to do such risky operation and the chance of him to fully recover is rather slim." She took a sip of her coffee before settling down.

"I've no choice but to give up."

"I rarely heard you giving up Tsunade… I have a friend. He's a doctor and had successfully done surgeries on these few cases. And those children's that were under his care are now living like normal kids." He said.

Tsunade's eyes widened, she slammed the table and sprang up to her feet, almost spilling her coffee. Jiraiya drank his coffee like nothing happened; he knew what was her reaction going to be.

"Now, give me his number and made an appointment with him as fast as possible." She put out her hand and insisted for the number. Jiraiya shook his head and dug into his pocket, fishing out his wallet and took out a name card, placing it on her hand.

"Did you just forget that I'm one of the volunteers here? If they are in need, I would put in my 100% to help them whatever I can."

Tsunade read the contact number a few times, trying to register what was really happening. She just found a way to helped Sasori to get back his voice. She could just imagine how the children would react upon hearing the news. Especially Sasori. All she wanted now was to hope that all of these weren't a dream.

She slumped onto her seat with the card still in her hand, too happy to speak. Jiraiya knew that this was the best opportunity to strike. He leaned forward his seat towards Tsunade and said.

"So… would you still go out a date with me?"

0o0

"Sorry, I'm late yeah."

The blonde barged into his new class of his senior year, ignoring all the stares looking at his direction.

"You must be Deidara. Get a seat and let's start the class." Kurenai pointed to the only empty seat right at the last row.

He looked briefly at his seat and took his bag, flumping it over his shoulders. He trudged across the room and sat heavily onto his seat, right beside Sasori.

They didn't speak for the entire time, until…

"Class, I want all of you to write up a reflection about 'Art' I want it by the end of this lesson." Kurenai slammed the table to gain everyone's attention before returning to her work. Almost everyone groaned, but Deidara begged to differ.

"No shit, but I love Art reflections yeah." Deidara took a pen from his bag and started writing on the piece of blank paper.

'Art is fleeting, and that's the true beauty of art…'

Deidara paused his work and looked at his partner's reflection. And immediately, he frowned.

"Art is not eternity! Your points are so wrong yeah."

Sasori glanced over his shoulder with his lazy brown eyes before looking at Deidara's work. He continued writing and calmly said.

"Art is not fleeting. Art is something that endures the test of time beautifully and gracefully."

"No yeah. Art should blossom for a moment than withers away… like an explosion! That fire was everything art should be. It doesn't need to last physically, but the memory of it would last forever yeah."

"How could you call something art when it disappeared as soon as it's born?" Sasori said, slightly irritated.

"It is."

"No. Shut up."

"It is. Art is fugitive yeah."

"Yeah… bullshit."

"N-"

"Enough! Both of you! Do both of you want detention?" Kurenai shouted, slamming on her desk with a long wooden ruler. Everyone turned to look at both of them before returning to their work mindlessly.

After breaking their glaring contest, Deidara purposely dragged his table away from Sasori's. The redhead rolled his eyes at his childish action and sometimes pondered exactly how old was he.

After a few minutes of silence, Deidara raised his paper to his eye level and cleared his throat. His blue eyes glanced over Sasori's shoulder before clearing his throat again. "Art. Art is something that blossoms for an instant before withering away, that's-"

"Could you shut your trap?" Sasori totally lost his cool. His knuckles turned white from gripping onto his pen.

The atmosphere became a little tense and a few students started to hesitate about how near their seats were from them. You'll never know when one of them could just grabbed his chair or table and flung it across the room aimlessly…

"Oh… somebody is mad." Deidara smirked. He ignored his glare and continued reading. "That's what pure art is…"

"You brat…"

"Detention! Both of you." Kurenai slammed the two detention slips on their table before anyone made their move.

0o0

"You two must be from Kurenai's class." Kakashi mumbled behind his mask. His white hair looked like a tornado just swept it to a side. His eyes were fixed on his book while the two entered the familiar room they had been for a few times since the start of school.

At the same time, their hands reached out for the same chair as they began their tug-of-war. "Thanks, let go." Sasori said.

"No, you let go yeah." Deidara argued back.

"Just sit down!" Kakashi grumbled, slightly annoyed from getting distracted from his book.

Sasori gave up and sat on the next sit right beside Deidara. The blonde smirked and mentally praised himself for pissing Sasori off. Not long after their argument, Kakashi's phone rang and he grumbled incoherent words again, reaching out for his phone. He stared at the caller's name before answering the call.

"Kakashi here. Huh? Ok Ok. I'll be there in a minute." The masked man stood up, staring wearily at everyone in the room.

"I'll be back shortly." With that, he left his book on the table and headed to the door.

Sasori turned his head to the other side, while Deidara began playing with his pen. The class was silent for a second before a voice spoke.

"Deidara, I know that is you, you're hair is so unmistakable."

The blonde looked over his shoulder, eyes widened by an inche.

"Oh… it's you Hidan." His silver hair was slicked back and he had distinctive pinkish-purple eyes. Both of his legs were on the table, not giving a damn about the world.

"So what trouble did you get this time yeah?" Deidara asked, slightly dragging his chair to face him. Hidan shrugged, giving a loud yawn.

"A stupid freshman fucking bumped into me and so I just said 'Fuck You.' And he fucking cry like some shit. What about you?"

"Ah, because of this guy…" Deidara snorted, Sasori turned his head and faced Deidara, his brown eyes narrowed and they went back to their glaring contest again.

The door suddenly flung opened as a slight wind brushed across Sasori and Deidara's face. A tall, dark-skinned and muscular man, with stitches all over his body entered the room and threw his bag on the floor, sitting heavily on his seat right in the row between Sasori and Hidan.

"Oi Kakuzu. Did you miss me and come back here again?" Hidan snickered.

"Idoit. I end up here because some ass took my penny on the floor-"

"And we fought, and I'm that ass."

Everyone turned their heads except for Sasori who was trying to take a nap and pass time. They stared at a pale blue-skinned man with white beady eyes.

"You…" Kakuzu muttered. "No one takes my money, not even a penny…"

Kisame was about to argue but his partner stopped him. "Itachi?" Kisame widened his eyes in surprise.

"I can understand for Kakuzu, but how could you end up here just because of a penny." The Uchiha heir calmly said.

The Uchiha slightly opened his dark grey eyes, his black hair that hung near his cheeks to frame his face and a long and loose ponytail in the back of his hair. He clasped his hand together, forming a bridge and allow his chin to rest on it. People always envied him, as he's one of the heirs of the most rich and famous business company, Uchiha Itachi.

Everyone was silence for Itachi's casual and weird remark. He rarely talked and always carried this emotionless face wherever he go. But Itachi didn't notice how weird the atmosphere was in the room. The Uchiha turned his attention to the redhead who was still lying his head on the table, not caring about what was happening around him.

"You must be Sasori…" He said, clearly recognizing who Sasori was by the distinguish colour of his hair.

"People called you the scorpion, partially because of your name, and how evil you can treat the girls…" Itachi blurted the fact.

Sasori raised his head and turned to look at Itachi with his tired and lazy brown eyes. He blinked for a few moments, currently trying to register what was happening in his mind. He heard his name, and he respond to it. But after a few seconds, he knew what was happening before he replied back.

"Then you must be the famous Uchiha Itachi, the weasel that steals people's candies for your own good." Sasori smirked.

Deep down, Deidara really admired Sasori's way of speaking to that Uchiha.

Itachi narrowed his eyes, and Sasori had another round of staring contest with his new opponent. Kisame nudged Itachi and muttered. "Don't tell me you went stealing lollipops again like last time."

Itachi slightly shook his head. "No, this time it's chocolate."

"Can all of you quiet down for a minute?"

Once again, everyone whirled around, including Sasori, who was rather surprised to hear a female voice among the men.

"Seriously, you two should fucking stop watching all these stuff, it's bad for your health." Hidan made a face.

"Shut up, pink eye, don't tell me you didn't watch before." Konan rolled her eyes while Pein sighed and they started watching their video underneath the desk again. And sometimes, Hidan sure doesn't know what does death feels like.

"Hey Kakuzu, you can watch _free_ porn here. That's so fucking awesome."

"Hidan, do you want to feel pain in your ass?" Pein growled, looking up from his video.

"Yeah try it, piercing-man fucker."

Kisame clapped his hand like a penguin, Itachi sighed softly, Deidara bit his lips and slightly squinted his eyes at the volume of their argument. Sasori gave a face palm before placing his head on the table, with both of his arm over his head. Kakuzu was still counting the money he had in his wallet for the 47 times that day.

Hidan and Pein both stood up and were about to hurl their tables across the room when the door flung open again. "What the hell are you both doing, get your butts on your seat." Kakashi ordered. The two stared at their sensei before returning to their seats quietly. They knew what they would get if they really pissed off Kakashi; The one thousand years of death.

"Pein. Konan. One of the teachers had found out that both of you had brought porn to school twice…" Kakashi slowly took the 'Icha Icha Make-out tactics' book from the table and cautiously hid it in a drawer.

"They just-"

Konan kicked Hidan's chair and he fell forward and hit his face on the table. The foul-mouthed Hidan rubbed his nose, murmuring some words under his breathe.

"Seriously, how old are all of you? Three?" Kakashi shook his head, he turned around and his back faced the students while he scribbled some things on the board.

At first there was silent in the room until a burst of laughter comes out from the guys, Sasori jerked slightly, surprised by Hidan's guffawing. Even Itachi slightly chuckle.

"What's so funny?" The masked man stopped writing and turned around. He was totally unaware that somebody that bold had pasted a piece of paper at his back, written in black marker; 'Come and unmasked me, cause I'm a sexy bitch.'

"Nothing, nothing at all yeah." Deidara said innocently.

Kakashi frowned. He faced his back towards them again and continued writing. Hidan totally loved that kid who did that to Kakashi, actually… second to Jashin.

Ironically, Deidara slightly turned and looked at his table partner. Sasori looked up to find the blonde looking at him too. Their eyes met, but this time they didn't start any more contests. But instead, Deidara gave a light punch on Sasori's shoulder, and they both smirked.

And from that day of their weird detention class, an incredible friendship was bond between all of them, and that was the real start of their senior year, their best one.

* * *

Sasori turned to the other side, facing the window. A small light coming from outside the window falls onto Sasori's face. His dream of the past event of his life continued playing. After a few moments, a small smile started forming on his lips, and at that exact moment, he was dreaming of the day when he met Sakura, watching her angry and pouting lips on her face when he snatched the cab away from her.

0o0

"Hello, May I help you? Hello?" Sakura called out to the phone that was ringing a whiel ago. But no matter how many times she had spoke, there was no response. But after a few seconds of silence, the caller suddenly replied.

"Sasori. I want to speak to him." Sakura could immediately make out the voice was a female, she slightly frowned, but she still obeyed the orders.

"Sasori! There's a call for you!" Sakura yelled. She handed the phone to Sasori once he got down from the stairs. "Who was that?" He asked, taking the phoen from her but all Sakura did was to shrug back.

"Hello?" He placed the phone to his ears.

"Sasori!"

"You are…" Sasori muttered, slightly familiar with the voice yet couldn't make out who was it. Tsunade? No, her voice wasn't like this. Ino? He wasn't that close with Ino and it couldn't be her anyway. Other than the two of them and Sakura, he rarely talks or meets with other girls. But after a few seconds, he suddenly straightened his posture.

Unless it's…

The bell beside the door suddenly chimed, the first thing both of them noticed were the bright yellow luggage that was rolled in with the two wheels, the next thing was a dull purple phone hand over the owner's neck with a bright yellow strap with pictures of fans on it. But the next thing that surprised only Sakura was the four spiky ponytails that the blonde had tied up.

"Temari." Sasori said, hanging up the phone.

"Sasori!" Temari exclaimed, dropping her luggage and ran over to Sasori, giving him a big hug.

"Whoa whoa, don't do that, you know I hated it." Sasori said.

"But I like it." Temari giggled. Sakura blinked, looking at the two of them. Temari broke the hug and finally noticed Sakura.

"You must be the girl that answered the call just now." Temari narrowed her eyes. "Are you Sasori's girlfriend?" She spatted rather dangerously.

"No! No. I-I'm just Sasori's employee. Answering calls is part of my job." Sakura explained frantically. Sasori stared at Sakura's reaction before looking at Temari. "She had a boyfriend already." He said. Temari gave a silent sigh.

"Oh is it?" She said, rather relieved.

"What's all the commotion about?" Deidara walked down the stairs after using the bathroom. Once he noticed the new presence, his eyes widened. And as quietly as possible, he stepped back and tried to escape back upstairs and away from their attention.

"Deidara, get down here."

Deidara froze, he sighed and trudged down the stairs with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Hello Temari! Long time no see yeah." Deidara said, walking down the stairs while waving at Temari. "Yes, long time no see." Temari walked towards the blonde and put her hand over Deidara's shoulder. He visibly tensed.

"Why didn't you send me any more emails regarding about Sasori's interaction with any special people; girls, for months?" Temari whispered for only Deidara to hear. But her scary smile still remained on her face.

"Someone ha-hacked into my account yeah, and I've lo-lost your email address." Deidara tried to convince Temari, and he did. Temari let go of Deidara and went to pick up her luggage on the floor.

"When did you get back to town?" Sasori asked.

"I came back here this afternoon." She rolled her luggage and set it beside the office desk.

"I got back to the orphanage and get your number from Tsunade. I've called your phone many times but you didn't answer, so I called your office." Temari then sighed.

"And I'm pretty hungry after the flight, rushing to two places." She added another sigh.

"Why don't we have dinner together?" Sakura suggested. Deidara looked at his watch."What a great idea yeah, I'm famished."

Sasori didn't say anything, and all of them took it as a yes.

0o0

"I was just overseas for a couple of years and everything seemed to change. Even the food changed; it gotten better." Temari pulled the luggage behind her while rubbing her full stomach.

"My boyfriend brought me to that restaurant for dinner whenever we went out." Sakura said.

"Really? You must have a wonderful boyfriend who care so much for you." Temari said.

Sakura didn't answer, but only smiled.

"Say… Can someone be kind enough and let me stay at his house?" Temari look at Sasori, hinting him. "I'm practically homeless now."

"Where did you home end up to?" Sasori asked, slightly puzzled.

"I've rent to a foreigner couple for several years, I couldn't just kick them out of the house before the rental ends right?" Temari said.

"So… Let me stay in your house then!" Temari directly asked. Sasori blinked. A girl staying with him doesn't seem a rather good idea.

"I'm not really comfortable with that, Temari…" He replied.

Temari pouted, she turned to Deidara and smiled evilly. "How about you? You would. Right?" Temari took a step forward while Deidara took a step back, keeping their distance.

"You can't my house is fu-full of stuff, there isn't any sp-space for another person to live in yeah." Deidara stammered

"You two ingrates. You don't expect me to stay in a hotel right? I'm so lonely and bored alone." Temari crossed her arms in defiance.

"Why don't you move in with me? I'm a girl and I stayed alone, my parents had went overseas so there's a spare room." Sakura said. Temari eyes brightened.

"I can't believe someone I met for just a few hours is willingly to help me more than both of you." Temari stuck out her tongue angrily.

'_Would Sakura be safe if Temari were to stay with her? I mean… you know… love rivals staying together might not be a good idea yeah.' _Deidara thought.

"Then we could had each other as company." Sakura said merrily.

Temari nodded and pulled Sakura towards the streets, leaving the two artists behind. "Danna, do you think it's a god idea yeah?" Deidara nudged him. Sasori looked at him.

"Why it isn't?" He asked, rather innocently.

Deidara stared at him, dumbfounded. "Nope, nothing." He mumbled, before gaining speed and catch up the two girls.

0o0

Deidara stopped his car outside the yard, the three of them got of the car and he went to the car boot and took out Temari's luggage, handing it to her. "Thanks for the lift." Sakura said.

"Ah, good night yeah." Deidara rubbed the back of his head. Temari spy at the two of them suspiciously, after that, she gave a huge slap on Deidara's back. "Thanks for the ride too. Let's go Sakura." She said.

Deidara groaned, rubbing his sore back. "Seriously…" He mumbled, getting into his car. Driving off in an instance once he saw the two girls safely entered the house. After all, Sasori did ask him to ensure their safety before he went to do something important.

"Here, this is your room." Sakura pointed. Temari walked towards Sakura after giving a glance at the photographs on the table.

"Wow, this place gave me a sort of feeling like I'm really at home." The blonde gave a bright smile.

"Thank you Sakura." Temari sincerely said. Sakura gave a nod, placing her yellow luggage on the floor.

"First we should settle your clothes and stuff." Sakura said, unzipping the suitcase.

"I'm sorry to trouble you." The blonde said sheepishly, sitting beside Sakura on the floor.

"It's okay, you're Sasori and Deidara, which makes me my friend too. And I should help anyone when they're in need." She said. Temari stared at her, before slightly smile.

They took about ten minutes to take out all the things and put Temari's necessities aside while some gifts and souvenirs at the other side. As Temari was folding some clothes, a piece of photograph stuck between two files caught Sakura's attention. She reached out for it and noticed how old the picture was. The colour had started to fade and turned slightly yellow, but the most of the original colour was still intact.

"That was the photo we took more than a decade. You can tell by how old that photo. Those people in the picture is basically my life; My everything." Temari said.

"This is Tsuande!" Sakura immediately pointed at the young Tsunade with her appearance almost the same as now.

"Yup. I'm an orphan like Sasori. Both of us were in the same orphanage since young." Temari said casually, putting her folded clothes away.

Sakura nodded in understandment, she looked at the row of kids and immediately noticed Temari, her hairstyles back then still hadn't changed. She looked at the next row and the finally took notice of a familar figure right at the corner.

She frowned.

"Wait..."

"This is…" Sakura continued.

"You can obviously tell who he is. It's Sasori of course. Look at his bored face and red messy hair." Temari said, standing up and placed her clothes on the bed.

"Sa… sori?"

'_Why does he look so…'_

"He lost his voice when he was young, that was sad wasn't it? But thanks to one of the volunteer in the orphanage back then… His name should be Jiraiya. Yup, it's him. He found a doctor and helped Sasori got back his voice."

_"Mum! There's a boy injured right there!"_

_"I'll call the police. Go and take a look at that boy, Sakura!"_

_Sakura ran over, bending down beside the boy while hugging her knees, her eyes slightly widened and scared. Using all her courage, she took out her hand and shook the boy's shoulder._

_"Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"_

_The boy slowly opened his brown eyes, and stared at her, but he doesn't seem to have the energy to speak or move._

_"You're awake! Can you hear me?"_

"Argh!" Sakura yelled out in pain, her two hands immediately clutched onto her head, almost pulling her hair out. She shut her bright green eyes very tightly, and yelped in pain once again.

Temari slightly jumped. The blonde regained back in composure and swiftly rushed to Sakura's side, pushing all the things away on the floor.

"Sakura! What happened! What's wrong?" Temari yelled worriedly, shaking her shoulder.

"My head...My head- I can't, it hurts."

"Sakura! Don't scare me! Sakura!"

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

"You abused Sasori and made him feel so sad!" –Hates Pocky-  
"You didn't had much SasoSaku moments again!" –Hates Pocky to the core and gives up on this story-

**EDIT**: I'm just kidding LOL. ^

-Pocky


	12. The First Chapter

[ May I ]

_When no one can be found, may I lay you down_

"Here, take these painkillers and some water."

Sakura forced the painkillers down her throat as she gasped for air after gulping down the water and the medicine.

"Feeling better?" Temari took the glass cup and placed it on the table. Sakura nodded.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." She said sheepishly, after calming down.

"It's alright. Why don't you get some sleep now?" Temari helped Sakura up and went into her room before she could argue back.

"Here, just sleep. Your headache would get better, or whatever that is." Temari stood up before looking around.

"Where's the bathroom?" Sakura immediately stood up and wanted to lead her to the bathroom when Temari pushed her down on the bed again.

"Have some sleep, just tell me the directions." Sakura pointed down the hallway.

"Go straight, and there it is." Sakura mumbled tiredly. The blonde nodded in response before heading out."I'm sorry if I troubled you." Sakura said hoarsely.

"I was the one that cause you the trouble, you had work tomorrow, so just rest. After cleaning up, I'll head to bed just fine." Temari smiled, slowly closing the door behind her. Before that, Temari popped her head through the small opening of the door.

"Good night." She waved, shutting the door.

Sakura smiled, looking at the dark sky outside her window. Her head slightly hurts even after eating the painkiller.

'_Whenever I thought about it, I always get the painful headaches…'_ Sakura thought, slighting shifting herself under the cover. _'That picture…'_ Before she could think anymore, she gave a curt wince, rubbing her head once more.

'_I guess I shouldn't think about it, like what Ino had always warned me… It wasn't something important anyway… I suppose.'_

She flipped to the other side, her headache slightly subsiding, and slowly, she drift into a peaceful slumber.

Temari walked to her room, and grabbed some fresh clothes on her bed. The blonde was about to exit the room until her eyes fell upon the photo on the floor. She went over and picked it up, frowning. Temari shook her head, settling it on her bed before heading to take a shower.

0o0

"Maybe you shouldn't come to work…"

"I'm fine. I promise."

Sasori raised his head, watching the two girls trudging up the stairs, opening the glass door and walked in.

"What's wrong?" Deidara noticed the weird conversation between the two females.

"She had a horrible headache yesterday evening. You two should take care of her better."

"Temari!" Sakura nudged her.

"Are you alright yeah?" Deidara stood up from his seat, gazing at Sakura up and down.

"When we were alighting the bus, she almost fell." Temari continued.

"I was just feeling a little dizzy, I'm fine." Sakura protested.

Sasori frowned. Deidara slightly widened his eyes and took a chair at the corner, dragging it to Sakura and pat on the seat indicating her to sit. "You should sit down yeah." Deidara said worriedly.

Sakura sighed, but she gave a smile and sat down like what Deidara had said. He bent down to Sakura's level and took out his hand, about to touch Sakura's forehead when another beat him to it.

The pinkette slightly tensed, surprised with Sasori's soft touch on her rather huge forehead. "There's no fever." He merely said, putting down his hand. Concern etched his face, and he didn't bother to hide it.

On the cue, the office phone rang. Sakura was about to stand up when Deidara gave a pat on her shoulder, standing up instead. "I'll get the phone." Deidara headed to the stairs.

"Let me get a glass of water for you. Stay here also." Temari put her handbag at the corner of Sasori's table and walked out. Sakura gave a soft sigh.

"I'm sorry I've troubled everyone just because of me." She said moodily. Sasori looked at her, bending down like Deidara's position before.

"What happened? Did you knocked your head, or is anything wrong?" He asked in concern. She grasped her light blue shorts.

"I was helping Temari unpack her things and I came across a photo. The photo that you and Temari had took in the orphanage back then." She slightly frowned, her head started throbbing with pain, but she tries to ignore it.

"You. Seen the photo?" Sasori said incredulously, not waiting for Sakura to say finish her sentence.

"I did. And I began… thinking… The problem is, I can't remember what I was remembering or thinking after that" She repeated, noticing a change of tone in Sasori's voice.

'_She seen it. She didn't remember… Yet, she seen it…'_

"But I don't know why, the pain suddenly came…"

"Why did you bother to think so much?" Sasori admonished inwardly. Sakura blinked a few times, trying to register what he had just said.

"Since it's painful for you, you don't have to give a damn about it. Seeing that it's useless."

Her bright emerald eyes slightly wavered, staring in shock at the angry redhead. This was the first time Sakura seen Sasori in such a pissed, angry and somehow disappointed look in his face, even when she really pissed him off on her interview day, he was not that angry like now.

"Why are you standing-" Deidara walked up the stairs and stared weirdly at Temari. Without looking at him, she took another hand that was not holding the glass and cupped over Deidara's mouth. He stiffened his posture and slightly glared at her, trying to take away her hand.

Deidara was about to argue when he noticed that Temari was focusing her gaze on something. He looked at the same direction, watching his two other friends in silence.

"If it hurts so much, don't bother remembering anything then." Sasori muttered, his frown slightly deepened, both light brown eyes looked away as he stood up, walking to his desk.

Sakura looked down and stared at her crumpled shorts. Her lips suddenly went dry, her eyes slightly turned foggy. She wasn't about to cry. She _was_ not… Sakura blinked her tears away quickly before standing up and looked at Sasori.

"I'll get to work now." She forced a smile, shuffling her feet and closed her workroom's door behind her.

Temari slowly put down her hand, her grip on the glass tightened. The two blondes turned and looked at each other, their eyes filled with concern about the two.

0o0

"Just buy anything." Sasori mumbled in the phone.

"Fine, Sakura?" Deidara asked.

The redhead looked up and stared at the door. "I don't know." He mumbled, uninterested.

"Ask her yeah." The other stated the obvious.

Unknown to the blonde, Sasori slightly hesitated. Looking at the door once more, he made an annoyed sigh. "Hold on."

Sasori stood up from his seat. He walked forward and quietly opened the door without knocking. He had guess that Sakura probably wouldn't be doing her work, but he never thought she would be talking to herself.

"Did I did something wrong again?" Sakura stared at the block of wood that was on the table. She picked up a pencil and lightly drew on it.

"If not, why was he so angry just now?" She sighed, drawing a small cat at the corner of the wood.

"I've never seen he so angry before. I preferred his laugh so much more. Back then, I never thought he would laugh like that." Sakura mused, finishing drawing the long tail.

Sasori blinked. He never thought much about it, but Sakura liked his laugh?

"Is he angry because I've seen his picture?" She pondered some more, and started drawing a fish in front of the cat.

"Haruno. I didn't hired you to draw and talked to yourself." Sasori drawled. Sakura jumped and dropped the pencil before turning her head so quickly that she thought she heard her a snap in her neck.

"I- I'm practicing drawing. I'm not talking to myself, I'm-"

"What do you want?" He ignored her explanation and raised his hand, shaking the phone. Sakura blinked. "Er… Cream puff." She said.

"I think you heard her." Sasori said.

"Very loud and clear yeah." Deidara replied, and they both ended the call.

Sakura silently gulped, realizing how awkward her situation is. Sasori sighed. "Did I traumatize you that bad? Why did you even talk to yourself?" Sasori raised an eyebrow.

Bright red dusted her cheeks, not knowing what to say. "No it's not like that…" She tried to explain, but her tongue seemed to be like it was tied in a knot.

'_How much had he heard? Dammit! This is so embarrassing!'_

Without a word, Sasori walked out and was about to close the door when a figure burst into their office. "I've bought some food! I know everyone must be hungry!" Temari merrily said, jumping with the bags on her hand.

Sakura stood up from her seat and look over Sasori's shoulder. "Wow… The amount can almost stock up at least a week." She said. Temari took out some sandwiches and puffs and handed it to Sasori who mindlessly took it.

"I left some more in the fridge. Actually, these piles weren't for you." Temari said sheepishly, taking the bags again. "I've promise Tsunade that I would visit when I left the other day after getting your office number."

"Help me say hi to the kids as well." Sasori said, putting down the food on his desk.

"Yeah yeah." Temari was about to go when she suddenly stopped.

The blonde took a box of painkillers from her pocket and handed it to Sasori. "Give it to her when she had any more headaches." She said, leaving the two alone in the office afterwards.

Sasori stared at the box in his hand, watching the cherry-haired walking to the desk, rubbing her hands in glee at all the food right before her hand. Glancing for the last time, he put the small box in one of his drawers, before making an important phone call.

0o0

"Thank you." Deidara took the bag of food and the change, walking warily out from the store.

At that moment, his phone rang. He gave an inward sigh before digging his pocket, fishing out his phone. He stared at the caller's name before answering.

"I'm back yeah. What's the hurry?" Deidara muttered, rather pissed off because of the long queue he had to line-up to buy the food.

"Temari just bought tons of food, you can just come back now." Sasori said.

"Are you kidding me? I already bought it yeah." Deidara gritted his teeth through clenched teeth. Even though he had some patience, he really hated queuing up to buy food.

"Then just come back." Sasori plainly repeated, with no sign of feeling sorry or guilt in his voice. "Fine…" Deidara cut the call, glaring at the bag of food. "How could they bully me like this?" The blonde said, walking down the street for his car.

"Thank you Ino, your flowers are always beautiful!"

"If you like it, do pick your orders again someday." Ino said cheerfully, stepping out from a store and waved back at the owner, before skipping to her bouquet shop just across her street.

"I didn't know I'm actually near her shop yeah…" Deidara muttered.

"Ino!" He shouted, waving at her with the bag of puffs in her hand. The blonde whirled around at the call of her name. "Deidara?" She said in surprise. After looking left and right, she crossed the road and approached Deidara.

"Want some puffs?"

"The puffs here are awesome… Thank you!" Ino grabbed some from the bag and began licking the cream. Deidara stared at the remaining puffs and picked one in the middle. "You came here to deliver some flowers?" He started a conversation.

"Yeah, since it's near the store, I walked instead of using transport." She said.

"Ahh… I wanted to ask you. Does Sakura regularly get headaches like today yeah?"

"Headaches?"

"Yeah, I thought you were her friend so you might know something."

"Don't tell me…" Ino licked the cream off her fingers, before pointing at his car at the end of the pavement. "I want to see if she's alright, mind taking me a lift?" Ino said desperately.

"Uhh, sure?" Deidara gave a sidelong glance at the worried look on Ino's face. "Is something the matter yeah?" He finally asked, the curiosity getting the better of him.

Ino tapped her foot patiently beside Deidara's car before he unlocked the door. Deidara started the car, yet he's waiting for Ino's respond.

"This happened when Sakura was just 8 years old…"

0o0

"Here, I brought some cakes." Temari placed the bags on Tsunade's desk.

"That's… a lot?" Tsunade raised an amused eyebrow. Temari grabbed a seat while the other rummage through the bags and looked over at the different snacks.

"What's with the sudden urge in coming back to town?" Tsunade asked, picking the cake that caught her attention.

"To check something." The blonde sighed, twirling with her spiky ponytail. Tsunade stared weirdly at her, unwrapping the plastic that was wrapping around the cream.

"I was wondering, do you know Sasori's assistant, Sakura?" Temari asked randomly.

"Yeah, she is one of my good friend's child. Anyway, why did you bring this up?"

"I see. Yesterday I was practically homeless, and that two ingrates didn't agree to allow me staying in their apartment. So Sakura kindly did. Then when we're unpacking, Sakura came across the photo we took decades ago, the first one she recognize was you, me, and after that… Sasori." Temari frowned, recalling the incident when she saw Sasori raising his voice at Sakura.

"She did? What happened to her?"

"How did you know something happened to her?

"So she really did?" Tsunade sighed, putting down her food and looked down at her reflection on the cup of coffee.

"She had a major headache. I managed to calm it down after letting her rest and giving her some painkillers…" Temari eyed Tsunade suspiciously before continuing.

"Today, Sasori seemed to be rather upset because of this incident."

Tsunade raised her head, her golden eyes widened so big as if it was about to pop out. "Tsk. That's why I didn't tell her about his presence before…"

"Did I miss out something?" Temari stretched her neck. "What's going on between the two of them? Tell her what?"

Tsunade slightly hesitate for a while, she looked away from Temari's eyes but sighed.

"When Sasori came to the orphanage, I mentioned about his injuries, remember?" Tsunade said meekly. Temari nodded.

"Before that, he had an accident. And it was Sakura who pulled him back from hell."

Temari unknowingly gasped. She always thought Sasori was just a quiet person who always kept to himself, who knew that so much things had happened to him.

"He almost died from the loss of blood, thankfully it was Sakura who found him in the dark alley. Apparently, Sasori couldn't forget that night, the night which he met Sakura for the first time." Tsunade watch Temari as she stared at the table, deep in thought.

"Then, why can't she…"

"At the age of 8, she had a car accident when she was cycling at the road alone. Most of her memories back then were erased. We took time and care to help her regain most of her memories. But not all of them were successfully return…"

0o0

"And once, she forced herself to remember something, she went for a semi-coma that last three days. She seriously scared the hell out of us." Ino said.

Deidara stopped his car at the corner. Ino opened the door slammed it shut, pointing at the building, telling Deidara she's going up first. He nodded curtly, locking his car. _'Who would knew something that bad happened to Sakura…' _He swiftly put his keys in his pocket and rushed behind Ino who was already u the stairs.

Ino barged into the Sakura's room and shook her shoulders.

"Do you have anymore aches? Did you eat something before you work? Did they bully you?" Ino points an accusing finger at Sasori instead of Deidara, who just walked into the room.

Sasori raised his eyebrow and watched Deidara walking towards him. "I met Ino a while ago yeah." Deidara drawled.

"No Ino! It's not like this. I'm fine." Sakura made Ino put down her arm.

"It's not fine Sakura, even though this happen long ago, I can't let this matter rest." Ino said, before pulling Sakura out from her project room.

"I'm taking you to the hospital." Ino decided.

"Believe me Ino, I'm really ok." Sakura sighed.

"What's wrong?" Sasori finally asked.

"When she was young, Sakura had a concussion on her head, and she would get painful headaches when she tries to remember some things." Ino explained.

"Ino!"

Right at that moment, Temari walked in with a packet drink in her hand. She stopped on her track after Ino made her speech.

"Sakura." Ino suddenly turned serious. "Don't tell me you tried remembering again." She almost glared at her.

"Ino!" Sakura sighed, watching the other three who were staring at her. After being caught by Sasori for staring at him, she finally spoke.

"I didn't do it on purpose, those memories just came flooding in." Sakura said.

Temari immediately turned and look at Sasori. She couldn't make out his expression.

"And, I didn't want all to be worried about me just because of such small things." Sakura said seriously, continuing. "For the last time, if I felt dizzy or any pain in my head, I'll immediately retire from my work and head home."

"Alright…" Ino gave up persuading Sakura to go for check up, she looked at her watched and stared in horror.

"Kami! I need to go now. I have more deliveries to rush. We'll talk next time" Ino combed her hair between her fingers, greeting an acknowledgement at Temari before rushing down.

"Do you need a ride?" Deidara shouted, Ino turned and gave a grin.

"Thanks!" She continued walking down, as Deidara walked passed Temari and followed Ino down as well.

Sakura sighed, before looking at the other two. "I'll go to work." The pinkette said awkwardly, returning to the room.

Sasori looked at the clock on the wall, and then at Temari. "I'll go get some fresh air." He merely said, trudging out.

Temari blinked, watching the rest doing their own things; the sound of the car engine starting outside as Ino and Deidara got on their car, the drilling of wood in the other room and the sounds of the footsteps Sasori made as he climbed up the stairs to the roof top.

She frowned and sighed, taking another sip from her drink. Deciding what she should do, she gripped onto the glass handle and opened it and walked out of the room.

0o0

Temari walked closer to the redhead who was leaning against the railing, gazing at the traffic. She gave a tap at the other side of Sasori's back as he turned and faced Temari's direction.

"Huh? You don't fall for that anymore?" Temari gave a bored look. Sasori return the bored look and stared at Temari.

"I'm not the same 10 years old Sasori you met." He reminded her.

"But your eyes are still the same, they always betrayed your emotions." She said.

Sasori looked away, knowing what she was hinting. Temari placed her hands over the cool railing and watched the traffic in silent with Sasori.

"Tsunade, she told me what happened to you – and Sakura, years back." She spoke.

He didn't say anything, but continuing looking forward. Temari sighed. "Sometimes, I don't get it, why does everyone always kept me in the dark, and always the one who is the last one to know something?" Temari muttered.

"My parents, Tsunade, everyone… and especially you. You always kept to yourself no matter what. Sasori, you have to share your problems, and not keep it to yourself, always hiding behind those eyes of yours. Problems and feelings are meant to be shared, and not to be kept hidden. It's really bad for your health." Temari chided.

"If you don't say your feelings and thought out, they can't understand, especially Sakura." Temari said, deciding to go straight to the point. "Not everyone is that professional and able to read your mind like Tsunade and I." The blonde admonished inwardly.

"If I say I don't have any problems, you wouldn't believe me, do you?"

"Of course I wouldn't believe that. What do you take me for? A three years-old kid? A person who met you less than a day? I had known you more than a decade! Simply I just know you inside out." She said

Sasori looked at her, he doesn't have any points to argue back. Even when he tried, he'll lose eventually.

"About Sakura, are you upset she couldn't remember?" Temari awkwardly asked.

'_His only hope was dashed…'_

Sasori kept silent.

"You like her, don't you?"

Sasori suddenly hiccupped. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand. He hiccupped again. Temari tried to hold back her laughter as she took it as a "Yes". The blonde kindly volunteered her drink and he accepted it.

"You had the obvious look of falling in love. That look I've never seen in my entire life until now." She teased.

He handed back her drink, recalling when his friends teased him like Temari. Was his ability of covering his feelings and emotion really slipping?

"Then why didn't you-" She paused.

He knew why she paused

'_She mentioned she had a boyfriend…' _Temari suddenly remembered.

She looked away, knowing that she lost her fight even when Sasori said much lesser than her.

They kept in silence for the entire time, ignoring the horning of the cars and the howling wind.

"I heard from Tsunade that you're doing great in Sunagakure, did you came back for a holiday?" Sasori spoke.

She remained dead silence, before turning and looked seriously at him. " You know I like you all these while don't you?"

The redhead never answered, years back when Temari left for Sunagakure, she asked the same thing. But he never replied as well.

Her lips turned into a smile, changing the atmosphere to a whole different level. "As for your question, I came back here just to make sure of something." She said.

"And I'm leaving pretty soon anyway. There's something very important that I need to answer also." The blonde took another sip of her drink.

"You're leaving?" The redhead asked to make sure.

Temari nodded, crushing the packet in the middle like the remaining core of an apple. "You should come over for a visit next time. I'll be the tour guide." She winked.

"I would." He made a smile, returning to his posture.

"Hey Sasori…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing, I just find your face rather cute." Temari giggled.

"…"

0o0

"Why don't you stay for another week? I could bring you to somewhere fun." Sakura said.

"It's alright, I really had fun when I was staying here." The blonde replied, holding onto her passport.

She patted her plane ticket on Sasori's shoulder. "Take care… Both of you. And tell that stupid Deidara as well." Temari said.

"Yeah."

Temari turned her attention to Sakura.

"Sakura, you won. I can actually leave in peace rather than worrying about it." Temari said.

"I won?" Sakura wondered aloud.

Sasori stared at the blonde while she just smiled back in return. "I should be leaving now. Do come and visit some time." Temari waved back, pulling her luggage and handed her passport for the officers to check. "Bye!" Sakura shouted.

Temari waved the last time, as the officers handed her passport back.

The two turned and walked out of the airport after watching Temari passed the checking point.

Temari stopped on her track, whirling around as she watched Sasori and Sakura's back. She smiled.

'_I lost…'_

'_No one managed to stole Sasori heart, but she did.'_

'_She won…'_

Temari took out her phone and began pressing the numbers. After a while, the caller picked up.

"Temari! You finally called! I-I'm sorry that I scared you the other day for proposing to you. I promise I wouldn't do it again, I'm serious-"

"I just came back to make sure of something. And I'm relieved." Temari looked back again, but Sasori and Sakura had already gone from where they were.

"Huh?"

"I'll marry you." Temari finally said.

"You'll what?"

"I said, I'll marry you."

"You'll what…"

"I said I'm going to marry you! Sora_ Baka_!" Temari almost yelled, earning some glances from a few passengers.

"She agreed! Temari agreed!" Temari could picture how Sora would be bouncing, jumping and hugging whoever was in sight. She sighed.

"Hello?" The blonde called out.

"She agreed to marry me! She really did!" He continued yelling, and suddenly, the call went dead. Temari frowned, looking at her phone. She shook her head and stuffed her phone into her pocket.

Temari smiled once more, pulling the luggage behind her.

0o0

"So, did that give you any inspiration?"

"Of course it did, the colours and the animation were so vivid… I didn't know that such techniques exist in the world…" Sakura said in amazement.

"Hello, want to but one of our latest couple rings for your girlfriend? I'm pretty sure she would love it." A girl outside a jewelry shop handed out a piece of flyer to Sasori.

"I guess you have mistaken it, he's not my boyfriend." Sakura explained.

"I'm sorry, you two look so perfect for each other." She said.

Sasori blinked while Sakura slightly blushed and tried to turn her attention by looking at the flyer in Sasori's hand. "It sure looks nice…"

"Why don't you take a look here?" The salesperson took the two of them to the clear glass window and showed different types of beautiful jewelries.

"Whoa… this is so beautiful." Sakura pointed at one of the rings behind the glass window.

"This is one of our latest product that our manufacturer had personally made put the diamonds around the ring." The salesperson said.

Sakura sighed, and began looking at the other pieces as the salesgirl assists her. Sasori stared at the ring that Sakura had liked. Sasori blinked. He just couldn't picture himself buying a ring for a girl.

He glanced at it for the last time, before looking up. Looking around until both of his brown eyes slightly widened in horror.

His friend's younger brother, Sasuke, was wearing a ring for another girl. She laughed as she looked at the beautiful ring in her ring finger. Sasori frowned.

'_How could he…'_

"Hey Sasori…" Sakura looked up, pointing at one of the necklace behind the glass. She noticed the way Sasori frowned, like he had just drunk a liter of lime and lemon juice. Sakura tilted her head and looked at the direction where Sasori was looking at.

"Sakura let's g-" Sasori clicked his tongue. He swiftly turned and was about to pull Sakura away from the shop when he realized it was too late.

Sakura's arm fell back to her side, her heart raced. Bright green eyes widened and ignoring how foggy her eyes was, she stepped forward and into the store.

Slowly and steadily, she came over to the Uchiha's side as she frowned ominously, her eyes glared at him. "Uchiha… Sasuke…"

Sasuke and the women turned, looking at the girl before them. "Sakura?"

"What are you doing here? With her?" Sakura tried to keep her voice calm and clear. She glanced at the ring that the red-haired was wearing."You lied to me… You told me you had meetings today…" Sakura muttered.

"Sakura, listen to me…" Sakura shrugged Sasuke hand off.

"How many times had you lied to me? I-I just can't believe… You do this… to me."

_She's hurt_

Sasori's eyes softened as he watched the three, he could not do anything… he really wished he could just pulled Sakura to his embrace and comfort her…

Sasuke took her hand but she immediately slapped it away, oblivious to the cool beads pressing down her own cheeks.

_She felt betrayed._

"Uchiha Sasuke. You bastard!"

_Her heart was shattered._

She ran out

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

**THIS. IS. THE. MOMENT!**

Next chapter… :D

:D = Reviews!


	13. Sakura's Thoughts

[ May I ]

_All I want is to keep you safe, from the cold..._

Her tears flow like tap water, and no one was there to turn if off.

Sakura ran, not even stopping to apologize to the people that she knocked into.

Sasori watched Sakura as she ran out of the shop. He turned and looked at Sasuke, expecting him to run after Sakura. But he didn't. Sasuke sat down on the chair again, as if nothing had happened.

The redhead narrowed his brown eyes. He looked at the pink hair across the mall, running to the exit. He crushed the flyer in his hand, throwing it into the dustbin nearby before running after her.

0o0

Sakura finally got out of the huge and scary building. She didn't want to face it. She doesn't want to lose it. _No_… She hadn't lost it, right?

'_Sasuke...'_

Her legs turned wobbly from the running. Her eyes were totally swollen just by crying for a moment. But she couldn't control it. Tears just kept forming in her eyes, running down her cheeks like nothing. Her heart was still to hurt to believe anything she saw.

Sakura legs dragged her to a bench right outside the mall.

_Numb…_

Everything was numb… Sakura used both of her hands to cover her face. "Why must Sasuke do this to me?" She sobbed.

The redhead finally managed to squeeze himself out from the huge crowd in the shopping centre. He ran out to the almost empty street, where a few couple was having the sweet moments together.

Sasori immediately noticed the only girl sitting on the bench, both of her elbow resting on her leg, covering her face to prevent anyway from seeing her crying and swollen face.

Biting the inside of his stomach, he took a few tentative steps forward. He never seen a girl cried so hard before, not even the girls he know all these years; Konan and Temari.

What was he supposed to do when he saw a girl crying so terribly because of the guy she love, betrayed her? Sasori forced himself not to pick up his phone and dialed Hidan's number to ask him.

He took a deep breath, urging himself to walk towards Sakura. He stopped on his track and stood right in front of the girl. Concern etched in his feature.

Sakura's head jerked up and Sasori knew, she was expecting Sasuke instead of him.

Sakura lowered her head in disappointment; she sniffed, and began crying back again. Sasori sat beside her without invitation. They didn't do anything for a moment, he just watched as a few couples past by. The passer-bys glanced at Sasori once in a while, muttering to themselves and wonder if he was the one that made the girl beside him cried.

He decide what to do, even if he had to sacrifice himself somehow…

Sasori silently gulped, taking a deep breath. He opened his mouth wide and began singing, singing as if he was just talking normally.

"In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double." Sasori quietly sang.

"Don't worry, be happy."

"The land lord says your rent is late, he may have to litigate."

"Don't worry, be happy."

"Look at me. I am happy." Sasori pointed at himself trying to make a huge smile, and it looks extremely weird. It looks like a smirk than a smile.

"Don't worry, be happy."

"Here I give you my phone number." He took out his phone, and like what Sakura did last time, he pointed at his cell phone.

"When you worry, call me; I'll make you happy."

"Don't worry, be happy."

Sakura slowly turned, looking at Sasori while he awkwardly sang the song. She wanted to smile so much, but her lips were quivering non-stop.

Sasori slowly put down his phone, trying to hide his embarrassment. In his entire whole life, he never once thought he would actually sing for a girl. He must have looked awfully ridiculous as he glanced at a few passers-by that were giggling to themselves.

'_What a stupid way to cheer her up…' _Sasori mentally groaned in his head. He looked at the other side, trying to avoid looking at Sakura. _'Why the hell did I do that…'_ He kept asking himself in his head.

"Sa-Sasori…" Sakura sniffed and hiccupped. She wiped away her tears, looking at Sasori's side view with her two red and swollen eyes.

Sasori sighed, looking over at his shoulder, but before he could realize what was happening, Sakura gave him a tight embrace. The redhead blinked. He blinked a few times again.

Sasori immediately raised his hand in the air, as if he was surrendering. His nut-brown eyes widened so big as if he was witnessing his office on fire. The back of his neck grew warm in embarrassment.

"Thank you… Th-Thank you…"

Sasori heart skipped a beat, he slowly lowered his arm. When was the last embrace he had? When was the last time when he felt so nervous… and warmth?

_20 years ago?_

Sakura didn't let go, she's afraid to do so. She needed a pillar to support her before she would collapse to the ground once again. Sakura started sniffing again, as the cool beads gradually warmed against her flesh,

He didn't know what to do… but to only gave a small pat on Sakura's back

0o0

Sasori stopped his car right outside Sakura's house. He turned his attention and stared at the sleeping figure. Her crying seemed to make her drowsy, resulting her falling asleep.

Sasori noticed the dried tear lines that left on Sakura's cheek. As if by response, he raised his hand and was about to caress her cheeks when Sakura slightly shifted in her position, turning to the other side and faced the window.

He blinked, dropping his arm and shook his head. _'Sasori, what the hell are you doing?'_

A soft snore came out from Sakura, her chest rose up whenever she takes in air. He turned his attention to Sakura again, and unknowingly, he started counting every breath that the girl drew in.

He didn't have the heart to wake Sakura up. She must have felt very exhausted from all the crying.

As if she knows what he was thinking, her eyes fluttered and her green pupils stared at the window, blinking a few times before realizing where she was.

"Sorry I must have fallen asleep." Her voice sounds hoarse.

She rubbed her eyes, and tried to force herself to smile, but her lips kept quivering non-stop. "Thanks for the ride." She managed a whisper, alighting from his car

"Sasori. Please. Please don't tell anyone about the incident." Sakura pleaded, her eyes were red enough. Sasori tried to argue but he knew there would be no point. He has to go according to Sakura wishes. And so, he nodded.

And after getting his answers, Sakura just closed the door behind her and shuffled her tired feet. She just wanted to go back home and sleep.

"Sakura! Are you… Alright?" Sasori asked, winding down the windshield.

She just gave a tired nod, lifting her arms and waved a goodbye. Without waiting for Sasori to speak anymore, she whirled around and began walking to her front door and into her house after picking the correct key to unlock the door.

Watching as Sakura closed the door, he sighed as he winded back the window. He stepped on his accelerator and went full speed ahead.

"Buzz…" Her phone began to vibrate in her pocket and the message alert sounded. She could already predict who the sender was.

She took a deep breathe, taking her phone from her pocket and viewed her message.

"_Sakura. Let me explain. Just answer the phone! –Sasuke_"

Sakura bit her lips. She deleted her message and came across to her phone's wallpaper. It was the picture that she took with Sasuke on his birthday.

She couldn't control anymore. Just by looking at his name and her wallpaper, she broke down crying again.

Sakura slides down and fall on the floor while her back was on the door, both hands covering her face. She broke down into sobs again. "Bastard…" She cried.

0o0

Two weeks. It's been two weeks since she last saw _him._

That night, Sakura had been receiving endless call, messages and voicemails, telling her to let him explain. Even coming in the middle of the night, shouting and banging on her front door, telling her to let him in. But Sakura ignored all of it.

And with his stubborn attitude, if it wasn't some neighbors who told him off, Sakura knew the Uchiha could have stay there the whole night…

If… he's really that sincere… that is…

But after that night, she never receives any calls and texts. Neither did he come to Sakura's house and requests to meet up. Actually, Sakura really needed that. She needed the time to think and let her heart mend back to pieces before knowing what she should really do.

If she see the guy one more time, or just the time when she's not strong enough, all the pieces of her heart that were mended back would shatter back again. She knew it.

'_There are people who cared, who were there… and not like that stupid jerk who play with my feelings like nothing...'_

"You've lost weight…" Sasori said. Sakura merely smiled. "I'm on diet."

"Remember the time when you nagged at me? That if I didn't eat, I'll have gastric pain?" Sasori placed a bag of cookies on the table. After a minute of silence, Sasori left the room, without saying another word.

Sakura sighed. She glanced at the untouched food on the table. Sasori was right. She can't continue to be like this just because of that stupid jerk. Ino would definitely know something was wrong if she keeps up like that.

Finally, she tore the packet and stared at the chips. And one by one, she began eating, completely unknown that the redhead was watching her between the small gap that was left when he closed the door.

'_Sasori kept his words. Ino had called me a few days ago and she didn't brought the matter up, nor cursing the Uchiha that she's going to burn him alive. But I seriously didn't know how long could I keep the secret wrapped so perfectly…'_

"Sakura! Do you know Hinata's cousin, Neji, is going out?"

"Is he?"

"Remember Tenten? On our second year, she was the one that accidentally hit your head with a basketball? I just saw her holding hands with Neji! And not only that! When I said hi and asked about their relationship, they both blush! Oh! You can't believe how cute both of them are! Do you think Hinata knew about this? Why didn't she share such amazing gossips with us?"

Ino kept babbling and babbling behind the phone, and all Sakura could do was to reply with a "Really?" "Wow!"

What else could she say to the most famous gossiping queen, Yamanaka Ino?

'_It was as though Sasuke really disappeared into thin air, no one actually knows where he had gone. Not even Naruto know where he is.'_

"Sakura-Chan!"

"Eh? Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"I just finished watching a movie with some friends. Didn't expect you to see you here." Naruto said as he looked at the ticket and popcorn in her hand.

"Are you watching a movie with teme?" He asked.

Sakura slightly tensed when she heard his name, even if it was just his nickname. "Y-Yeah." Sakura lied. She felt really bad when she had to lie to Naruto, especially when he was her best friend.

"It's been a month since I last saw him. I thought he was dead. Are you waiting for him?" Naruto frowned "How can he let my Sakura-Chan wait for him?" The blonde began cracking his knuckles.

"Ahhh… Not really, he's in a restroom. I'm going in first anyway." Dropping some popcorn on the floor when she shook it.

"Hi Naruto. What are you doing?" A pale guy walked towards them, a huge fake smile plastered on his face.

"Sai! I'm coming, just tell them to wait." Naruto waved him off.

"The movie is about to start, maybe I should be going in first." Sakura smiled back, giving a nod at Sai, who still smiled at her.

"But Sakura-Chan…"

"You heard Ugly, what are you waiting now? For your dick to grow longer?" Sai asked.

"Ugly?" Sakura slightly crushed her ticket.

"Sai!" Naruto immediately pinched Sai's face.

"Ah, we should be going now Sakura-Chan! Now Go!" Naruto waved at Sakura, while ordering and pushing his friend back to the group. Sakura sighed, waving back as she watched Naruto laughing away while his other mates gave a slap on his back.

She looked at her pathetic ticket, shuffling her feet and handed it to the attendant. After inspecting her ticket, she entered the theater, watching a few other couple hugging and snuggling between the two of them. She tried to look away, turning her attention and began finding her seat before the movie starts

'_And sometimes… Friends are still the best when you're down and alone.'_

"Sakura?" A familiar voice called out. She turned to find her boss sitting just a row behind her.

"S-Sasori!" She whispered a little loud. "What a coincidence!"

Noticing that there was an empty seat beside her, he moved his position and sat beside Sakura, who was rather surprise. Other than work and after work, she never saw Sasori out on Sundays. Watching a movie? Sakura slightly giggled.

Putting some popcorn in his mouth, he looked at her. Even though it's rather dark inside, there's some light from the commercial that was playing on the screen before the movie starts, allowing Sakura to be able to see the frown on Sasori's face.

"Are you expecting someone?" Sasori asked, ignoring Sakura's giggles. She shook her head.

"I guess… I can sit here then?" He asked again.

"Ahhh sure! I laughed not because I-" She ruffled her messy hair. "Actually, I should be really thankful that you sat here. If not, I would be rather lonely…" She admitted.

Before Sasori could speak further, the movie started and everyone remained silent, all their attention were fixed on the screen.

"Ahhh-choo!" Sakura covered her nose, looking around to see if she had interrupted other people's attention.

"Are you cold?" Sasori asked, just realizing that Sakura didn't wear much clothing, and it was rather cold inside.

"I was just window-shopping when I noticed this movie was up yesterday. Since I didn't know I would be watching a movie, I didn't bring anything to keep myself warm." She whispered back, rubbing her hands together.

Sasori looked at his own jacket before glancing at Sakura. He began pulling the sleeve out and before Sakura could realize what happened, his warm jacket covered her body as Sasori went back to his position, returned to watch the movie as if nothing happened.

"S-Sasori…"

"I'm not that cold." He merely said.

Sakura gently smiled, tugging his jacket tighter to her body. "Thanks." She murmured, following by watching the movie till the end.

But his chocolate-colored eyes were not focused on the screen, all it do, was to stare at the girl beside him, laughing and crying when the mood changes in the movie.

And so he watched his _movie_, till the end.

0o0

The clock in the room ticked like there's no tomorrow, his brown eyes watched the second-hand moving around in circles. He turned his attention and stared at the door when he suddenly lost interest in the clock. There was just silent, nothing else. He frowned.

'_Is she crying again?'_

Sasori stood up, pushing his chair back. He walked towards the door and quietly opened it. He blinked, realizing that Sakura was sleeping. Sasori just stood there, and watched the tired girl sleeping, with her arm on the table, supporting her head as she soundly sleeps.

As he pushed the door further, it suddenly creaked. Sasori slightly jumped, praying Sakura wouldn't wake up because of the noise. But Sakura still remained still, her chest rising whenever she took a breath.

He mentally sighed, pushing the door to the very extend as the frame slightly touched the wall. Some light entered the room, casting some orange light on her peaceful face.

Sasori couldn't control it, his lips slowly turned into a smile.

At that moment, as if Sakura was reacting to it, she slightly moved her head, making a tired sigh. The redhead suddenly crouched into position like a ninja, preparing to escape from the room if she really woke up. He didn't want her mistakenly thinking that her boss was watching her sleeping. That would be extremely creepy.

After making a few adjustment to her position, she slightly mumbled a few incoherent words before finally returning back to her peaceful slumber.

Sasori mentally sighed, gaining back his position.

'_What the hell am I even doing…'_

Watching as a few strands of Sakura's pink hair slightly fall in front of her face, he finally picked up the courage and walked closer to Sakura, casting his own shadow on her elegant face.

Sasori reached out his hand, slowly caressing her smooth and tender cheeks. The redhead pushed a few strands of hair behind Sakura's ears as he gradually bent forward until his eye level met hers.

He got closer, and closer…

He slowly closed his mesmerizing brown eyes…

And gently, he kissed Sakura's lips.

The sound of the clock ticking appeared to be getting softer. The car's horn outside seemed to disappear into the wind. Instead, all Sasori could hear was Sakura's soft and steady heartbeat.

It was just a few seconds before he slowly opened his amber eyes, watching the bubblegum-hair girl sleeping, as if nothing had happened.

Sasori stood up, moving back and away from Sakura. The orange light slowly went back casting on her gentle face.

'_It's sweet…'_

His eyes softened once again, he didn't want her to cry anymore. But what can he do? How can he heal the girl's shattered heart? Was he… brave enough?

The redhead slowly raised his arm, touching his lips.

If he was brave enough… would that change everything?

He closed his eyes once again, taking another deep breath. Sasori whirled around, holding onto the doorknob and slowly closed the door.

But sadly, he wasn't brave enough…

0o0

Sasori slightly nodded, putting away his files accordingly. After making sure everything was in place, he walked forward to his desk and took his belongings and headed out.

Before Saosri reached out for the door handle, he glanced over his shoulder and stared at the door. Without any further ado, he pushed the door and trudged down the stairs

The redhead walked out of the building, glancing at his feet once in a while when he's walking to the car. After unlocking his door, he raised his head and gave another look at the clear glass window.

On the cue, a dark blue car zoomed past Sasori and gave a very loud screeched before halting. Sasori immediately recognized whose car it belonged to, and his answer was definitely correct.

Sasuke slammed the door shut behind him, taking out his phone and punched in the number very hard as if the phone owed him money. After dialing the number, the Uchiha pressed the phone screen against his cheeks, waiting impatiently for the caller to pick up.

Sasuke glanced once in a while at the window when he was waiting for the other to answer, and Sasori followed his gaze. And immediately, he knew why his friend's brother would appear in front of their building and whom he was calling.

0o0

"Buzzz…" Sakura's pink phone continued vibrating on the table. Her eyelids slowly fluttered, opening her emerald eyes. Sakura rubbed her tired eyes, trying to find what was the buzzing noise. She glanced at the phone on the table before quickly grabbing it and staring on the caller's name

Sasuke.

Her green eyes widened every slightly, she stood up, still clutching on the phone in her hand.

'_Two weeks. Four days.' _Sakura looked at the phone for the timing. '_And two hours, fourteen minutes'_

Sakura walked out of the room, her phone continued vibrating in her hand. She randomly glanced outside of the huge glass window, and to her amazement, Sasuke was standing at the car park with his car by his side and looking at the glass window to find if there was any presence.

Right at that moment, her green huge eyes met his black onyx ones. She widened her eyes again, rushing out of the room, knowing that she had been caught.

Sasuke immediately cut the call, he briskly walked towards the building, ignoring that he had not locked his car.

Sasori narrowed his eyes when he realized something was wrong. He locked his car once again, watching Sasuke running towards the building.

0o0

Sakura grabbed her handbag on the desk, but she was too late. The bell by the door chimed, as the familiar presence entered that Sakura was in.

"Sakura…"

Sakura was about to turn and headed up stairs again when Sasuke grabbed her arm. She tried very hard to shrug it off but his grip tightened.

"Let go. Uchiha."

"Not until you hear me explain."

"You expect me to hear you explain? Lies… What if all are lies again? I don't even know how many times did you lied to me, and you expect me to freaking… believe you?"

"Sakura… All these while I didn't call you because I was away in another country having meetings-" Sakura took another hand and pushed away Sasuke's grip, but Sasuke caught her wrist as she glared at him.

"Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. But it doesn't matter anymore. When I realized it wasn't you that chased after me during that incident, but someone else, I utterly. Gave. Up. On. You." Sakura jabbed her finger on Sasuke chest, giving another shrugged, her wrist was free as she approached towards the door, but Sasuke stopped her.

"Are you telling me, these entire four years when we are together, it meant nothing to you? Can't we be together again?" The Uchiha said.

Sakura glared at him, yet she didn't bothered replying to his question. "Move."

Sasuke didn't move, not even an inch.

Sakura gritted her teeth. She sucked in a deep breath before exhaling loudly. "If… If there was a chance for me to turn back the time…" Sakura glared coldly to her _ex_-boyfriend.

"I would rather be with Sasori than to be with you."

Sasuke frowned, "Wha-What…"

"Move!" Sakura used her force and pushed Sasuke out of the way, pulling the door opened. Sasuke ran out immediately standing in front of Sakura as she fiddled with the keys, locking the office door.

"Sakura, let me explain and you'll understand _everything_."

Sakura shrugged his arms off again, stomping off towards the car-park lot. While ignoring what Sasuke was saying to her, she stopped in her track. There, was Sasori, standing in the middle of the car park, still debating if he should go into the building to interrupt the two.

He whirled around to find the said two looking at him. The Uchiha sneered, reaching out for Sakura's shoulder, but she immediately slapped it away. She stomped her feet, approaching to the redhead. Sasori was rather dumbstruck and didn't know what to do.

And what Sasori and Sasuke never expected was, the girl grabbed hold of Sasori's arm, giving a huge broad smile at the redhead afterwards. He blinked even more, slightly remembering something he did a few moments ago, which no one on earth except him knows about.

Sakura turned and glared back at Sasuke, pulling Sasori away. "Let's go." She only said.

Watching the two of them driving off in Sasori's red car made Sasuke extremely mad. He turned his fist into a huge, hard rock. As the Uchiha noticed a small pebble on the road, he kicked it, making it rolled over and over and over till it fell into a small drain.

"Damn it… no one dares to mess with me. No one…"

0o0

"I'm sorry…" Sakura lowered her head, staring slightly sad and guilty at her shoe.

"And why would I be?" Sasori asked.

"I… I kinda used you to get rid of Sasuke. I should be partially thankful as well too…" Sakura shifted her position, looking at her boss. "If you weren't there, I don't know what to do…" Sakura hesitated.

Sasori slightly smiled, using his other free hand, he casually waved her off. "I'm glad I could help, even just a little." He said.

Sakura blinked. _'He smiled…'_

'_And… why is my heart racing?'_ She frowned, pondering very hard. But her frown slowly disappeared.

Truthfully, she had been so upset lately, and completely ignoring the surroundings around her. Even when she's with Sasuke back then, he never gets to do what her amazing friends would do just for her…

'_Like Ino's delicious apple crumbled pie, she always made it at my house whenever she was free. Back then… I would always complain about how fattening it is, and how messy my kitchen would end up. But now, I awfully missed it…'_

She licked her dry lips, thinking about how the pie would always melts in her mouth whenever she savors it.

'_Like Hinata's careful character, she worries about everything, even small details like, "What if Naruto-kun were to see me in orange?" But now, I really wishes someone like Hinata to worry so much about me, as if she was my mother; who went on overseas business every time.'_

Sakura mentally sighed, remembering how Hinata was so excited and nervous when she realized Naruto had invited her to his house for a house-warming party.

'_Like Naruto funny, yet awfully lame jokes, even though he is a loud-mouthed guy who always exclaimed that he would be the Ramen-King someday, he never once failed to cheer me up whenever I'm down. Perhaps, that's why I always thought, that eating Ramen was the best way to lighten my mood.'_

The girl looked at her favorite phone's strap. It was Naruto's handmade gift on her birthday, and she extremely loves it.

_Like Deidara's teasing, funny and cheerful character, it actually brightens both Sasori and my mood. He cares for me like a big brother. He knows what a girl thinks, and what a girl wants. Obviously he looks pretty much a playboy, but he's a kind-hearted person.'_

Sakura could remember the bright daisies on her desk. The flowers were still in perfect condition, as both Deidara and her would frequently change the water for the flower.

'_Like Sasori…_' Sakura paused, trying to think hard about him, she slightly peeked at his charming features…_ 'His dark-brown eyes that seems so mysterious yet innocent at once. His crimson red hair that seemed so messy as if he just got out of bed… His soft and bubbly face...!'_

'_What am I saying now? I'm suppose to… Argh…' _She gave a face palm and shook her head.

"What are you doing?" Sasori frowned ominously, giving a sidelong glance at Sakura while he still focused on the road.

"I was just thinking of something… That I probably shouldn't." Sakura mumbled, praying that he didn't see her slightly tinted cheek.

"Oh…" He only said, returning back his composure.

Not long, Sasori reached right outside her house. Sakura smiled and gave a "Thanks", before getting of the car.

Sasori averted his eyes away, biting his lips, after getting enough courage he stopped her before she could walk off. "Are you okay?" He asked. Sasori was slightly worried that Sasuke could have affected her mood.

"I'm fine." She just gave a curt nod.

Sasori gave a nod back, and then there were perfect silence. Both of them were staring at each other, as if they were expecting something.

"Er… why don't you go first?" Sakura break the silence.

"I need to ensure your safety before going first." Sasori merely said as if it was nothing. But to Sakura, she felt rather shock, to say the least.

Sakura blushed again. She quickly whirled around and walked to her front door, trying to avoid Sasori from seeing her current state.

Fumbling nervously with her keys, she slotted in the key and entered her house without looking back.

After ensuring that she was safe in her house, Sasori drove down the street. Sakura watched the car disappeared by the window and she turned and sat heavily on her sofa.

Her phone rang again, and she knew fully well who it was. With no intention of picking it up, she took her phone and shut it off, preventing from any disturbance as she watched her favorite love drama that was ongoing now.

0o0

Sakura slumped onto her bed, brushing through her slightly wet hair. After giving a quick glance at her sleeping pet, she mentally sighed,

She shifted her position and faced the dressing table. She sighed after looking at herself in the mirror. She could clearly see the dark rings under her eyes. She's been so stressed up lately by the incident that she found it rather hard to sleep nowadays.

Unknowingly, her eyes fall upon her pink cell on the table.

'_Should I call him?' _She mused.

"11:09" Her electronic cloak brightly showed her the time.

Giving a last look at the clock on her table, she picked up her phone and began dialing the number.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

There's commercial before a movie starts… right?

To prevent the OOCness, I tried to make Sasori comfort for Sakura not to overboard, and just right. But I think there might be flaws somewhere.

Reviews are absolutely appreciated!

-Pocky


	14. Appreciation Babelicious Confession

[ May I ]

_To give you all that your heart needs the most._

Sasuke slammed the door behind him. Itachi glanced at him for a second until the advertisement on the television went away, Sasuke just watched his older brother in disdain.

"Next time, tell your friends to mind their own business." He muttered, resting against the sofa that Itachi was sitting on.

"What is your problem?" Itachi slightly glared at him.

Right at the moment, Sasuke's phone rang, when he glimpsed at the caller name, his eyes widened. He picked up the call and walked briskly to the kitchen. Itachi frowned, slightly suspicious of his action. He didn't mention anything, but just lowered down the television's volume.

Itachi's attention was now only drawn to his younger foolish brother who was talking so-ever loudly on his phone, and so… Itachi 'accidentally' heard what's the conversation was about.

0o0

Sasori rubbed his nose, sniffing once in a while. _'Is someone talking about me?'_ He shook his tired head and gave a short sigh, watching all his unfinished work on his desk always gives him a headache.

He heard his soft ring tone as he tugged into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He looked at the name of the caller before raising an eyebrow. "Hello?"

"Hello Sasori. This is Sakura." The girl said behind the phone.

"Ah, Sakura. Is anything the matter?" Sasori asked, playing with his pen.

"Am I disturbing your sleep?" Sakura shyly asked, tugging onto her pyjamas, slightly embarrassed.

"No no, I'm…" Sasori gave a sidelong glance at his work on the table, "I'm just having a break from my work. It's alright." Sasori said.

He could hear a small sigh behind the phone but he didn't mention it. They remained silent for a moment until Sasori cleared his throat to tell Sakura he's listening. After getting his hint, she spoke.

"I was pondering on this matter for a very long time. Should I give Sasuke a chance to explain?"

Sasori remained silent, what should he answer? A selfish one, or a truthful one?

"I kept pushing him away, and I didn't give him a chance to explain. Maybe, there is really an explanation for all of this mess.

"Then you should give him a chance." Sasori finally said.

Right after his answer, there was just a moment of silence. Sasori even thought that Sakura had hung up or something. "Hello Sakura?" Sasori said.

"Ahh, I'm here. Sorry, I was just spacing out." She sheepishly said. Sasori could exactly picture Sakura rubbing the back of her head like what she always did. "He called me for the umpteen times, you're right, maybe I should give him a chance. I can't keep running away like this." Sakura sighed.

"I'm sorry that I've disturbed you like almost in the middle of the night." Sakura laughed innocently. "It's just kinda funny that I called you just for this. I mean other than work stuff, I actually asked something like this personal…" She mumbled.

"I'm the only one you could talk to now, right?" Sasori said, hoping for the answer he wanted.

"Yeah…" That's what she only said, but the simple answer seemed to be able to give him so much energy to do his entire work in just one night. It just unknowingly made him smile.

"Sasori, Thank you." Sasori suddenly jolted out from his own thoughts as he slowly gained back his composure. He didn't know what to reply, and then there's just silence.

"Even though tomorrow is Sunday, that doesn't mean you can stay up so late at night. Put all your work aside and do it tomorrow afternoon. You need a good night sleep." Sakura started nagging again.

Sasori closed his eyes. He just couldn't wipe off the smile on his face. "Alright alright." He said.

"Good night, and… sweet dreams!" Sakura said merrily.

"Same to you." No matter what, Sasori just couldn't repeat the same words that Sakura had just said. That would totally not suits for such a cool guy like him.

'_Sweet dreams to you…'_ That's what he truthfully wished for her too.

And right after they hung up, Sakura knew what she was going to do tomorrow as she immediately cuddled herself in her bed.

But for Sasori...

He couldn't sleep.

He couldn't continue his work either.

He just doesn't know if he should regret the answer he made.

0o0

"Hello?" Sasori spoke after receiving an unknown caller in the afternoon as he was in the midst of doing his work.

"Sasori, I suppose that's your name."

Sasori looked at his phone for the number of the caller, he didn't recognize the number at all. But he found the voice rather familiar, like he heard it somewhere before.

"And yes… if I am?"

"Can we meet up this afternoon? I have something to speak with you."

Sasori's eyes widened very slightly, he finally realized who the caller is. It's none other than Sakura's _ex_-boyfriend, Uchiha Sasuke. _'Why is he making this request all of the sudden?'_ Sasori thought quietly to himself, before deciding what to do.

"It's fine with me. Where do you want it to be?"

0o0

"I've just called Sakura about-"

"I'm aware."

Sasuke turned and faced Sasori who was just staring at him with his two emotionless eyes. They could have just put up an intensified battle just by looking at each other.

Sasuke leaned against his car casually. "You better give up on Sakura, if you don't want to be hurt." The Uchiha said.

Sasori raised his eyebrow, looking wearily at him. "She was the one getting hurt when you attempt to hurt her with your actions, _previously." _

"And why do you care about her feelings? She's just your employee." Sasuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him as he straightened his posture.

"For your information, Sakura was in her previous state because of you and your dumb actions. Not only me, but any passer-by could judge for that." Sasori muttered dangerously.

Sasuke shrugged as if he didn't care. To say truthfully, he really didn't care at all.

"That just proves Sakura loves me that much. It was she who fell in love with me after all…" His tone sounds as if he was about to laugh.

Sasori clutched his fist hard, about to hit him anything in the face. But he knew he couldn't, he doesn't need this extra trouble for now.

"If you know she loves you that much, then why are you toying her feelings?" Sasori gritted through clenched teeth.

"Like I said, why do you care?"

"I'm just warning you because you're Itachi's brother."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, giving a smirk as he regained back his composure. "Then since you're one of Itachi's good friend, I shall tell you something." Sasuke crossed his arm, unable to hide the scorn in his voice.

"Tonight at 7, there's an amazing show at the Italian restaurant just across this street." Sasuke stuck out his thumb and pointed at a rather busy restaurant, but Sasori didn't bothered to look at it. The redhead just watched the Uchiha with no interest.

"I definitely hope you would be able to attend the entertainment because it's specially for you" Sasuke walked slightly forward, giving a pat on Sasori's shoulder. After that, Sasuke drove off in his car and down the street.

Sasori didn't move from the spot, he just stood there, gazing at his own long shadow. Not long after, the tall clock tower just a few meters away chimed for the fifth time since 12, telling everyone its 5 in the afternoon.

0o0

He's been walking for almost 2 hours.

Sasori didn't want to go home, he doesn't want to be trap between the four walls and suffocates his mind in there. He needed air, fresh air…

'_Pasta…'_

The redhead looked up, and to his surprise, he was standing right outside the said restaurant. He took out both of his hands from his pocket and messed up his already messy hair.

"It's 7." He wondered aloud.

"Welcome to our newly opened restaurant!" One of the waitresses handed a flyer to Sasori for him to see the special delicacies and the offers on the flyer. He was still debating if he should go in, like what Sasuke had told him to at 7.

As if Fate knew what he was thinking, a slight breeze blew by, allowing the flyer to slip away from his fingers and went towards the wind's direction. Sasori was about to grab it back when he noticed a familiar car had been already parked in one of the lots.

He bit his lips, observing the familiar dark blue car that was stationary outside the restaurant. Without hesitating any longer, he entered the restaurant with the waitress's guidance.

As Sasori glanced at all the customers in the restaurant, he's prediction was right, at the corner of his eyes, he noticed pink.

The two of them; Sasuke and Sakura were sitting in the middle of the restaurant.

Sasori was led to the corner where he could watch the amazing view outside the glass windows, but his main attention wasn't the pretty sky and lit up lamp posts, but the pair.

"What would you like to order mister?" The waitress asked politely.

Giving a glance at the menu, he placed an order on a cup of coffee to buy time to sit in the restaurant.

They didn't spoke at all, that's what Sasori noticed. He couldn't really see Sakura's reactions or facial features as her back was facing him. But he knew she seemed to be rather upset over something by looking how her shoulder slouched.

"I've heard enough explanation about telling me you were away throughout the entire two weeks. I gave you chance to explain, and you better treasure it." Sakura muttered as she glared at the cup of orange juice on the table.

'_He's here…'_ Sasuke noted as he had requested to sit at the place where he could view the entrance, and Sasori had finally arrived on time. _'The entire waiting would be paid off Haruno. You shall see…'_

Sasuke tried to put his hands on Sakura's but she pulled it away, and placed both hands on her lap, still glaring at the orange juice. "Sakura, I shall get to the main point then if you insist." The Uchiha said.

"Back then when you witnessed at the jewelry shop. Karin was just my assistant and nothing else. I can swear on that." Sasuke frowned when he noticed Sakura did not give a damn about it at all.

"You can swear on anything. That doesn't mean anything to me." She spoke.

Sasuke gave a loud sigh. "Sakura, I really mean it. I didn't lied either. She wanted to help me explain it to you but I suggest not. You wouldn't listen either right?" He said.

Sakura just shrugged.

"If that still doesn't convince you, then I have to use this." Sasuke stood up, and walked around the table to stand right in front of Sakura as she looked at him curiously.

Now Sasori could exactly see what expression was she revealing when her face was directed towards him.

A waiter walked towards the Uchiha and handed out a pink small box. Sasuke took it and opened the lid, revealing a shiny diamond on a silver band.

Sakura gasped, her pretty green eyes widened.

The raven-haired took the silver band out and placed the empty box on the table, while the waiter departed to do his things.

"This ring... I actually planned a surprise with it." Sasuke said, but Sakura didn't seemed to listen, her eyes were just glued to the band in between Sasuke's fingers. Sasuke smirked, bending down on his knees in front of Sakura.

'_Take that Akasuna Sasori… That's for ruining my ego.' _

"I didn't know what does a girl wants, so I asked my assistant for some advice in which type of rings would you preferred. And on that day, I really do have meetings. We just went to the store to get the ring and that's when you appeared right before us…" Sasuke onyx eyes were still looking out for Sakura's expression. Even though he's on the winning side, he knew Sakura too well, she's not the type who would back down so easily.

"That's why I have to explain it to you face to face and present this ring to you. I planned to surprise you when I managed to clinch a deal with one of the big companies and celebrate with you. I guess I have to do this soon in order to clear my name." The Uchiha said. Sakura was still speechless. She never thought this day would happen.

"But if everything is going back to normal like we always were, I don't mind at all…" He said, giving a half smile.

"Sakura… Would you marry me?"

"Say yes! Say yes! Say yes! Say yes…" Everyone in the restaurant were stunned by Sasuke's action. Some whistled, some pressured Sakura on the answer, and some clapped.

But only one was sitting there in silence, waiting for the outcome.

"Sasuke… I…" Sakura cupped her hand over her mouth, blinking away the tears of joyfulness. She didn't know what to say. She kept telling herself that she wouldn't give in so easily to him when she was on the way to the restaurant in Sasuke's car. But in the end, her instinct seemed to betray herself. Sakura just nodded her head furiously.

His lips turned into an enormous grin while everyone began clapping and cheering for the couple. Sasuke took the ring and slide it into Sakura's finger.

_He's hurt._

The Uchiha stood up while Sakura was inspecting her lovely engagement ring. Her mind was completely dazzled with excitement as she immediately hugged him

_He felt disappointed._

The waitress just brought the freshly brewed cup of coffee, but just stood there in daze, looking at the moments between Sasuke and Sakura. "So sweet… This is the most memorable thing that happened in our restaurant…" The waitress gave a lovely sigh.

_His heart was shattered._

He slowly took out his wallet and placed the money behind before the waitress could turn around placed his coffee on the table.

He already ran out.

Sasuke gave a sidelong glance at the figure that just rushed out of the restaurant. He smirked, still in Sakura's warm embrace.

0o0

Sasori slammed the empty bowl on the table and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. A few of the customer even stopped and gave up on the competition when they seen the amount of empty bowls at Sasori's table.

The redhead took out his wallet and placed some money that was worth more than the food he ate. Without waiting for the one hour to end, he stood up and just walked out of the restaurant, ignoring the shouts that were directed to him.

"Wait! Your money!" Naruto grabbed the money and ran out of his own restaurant, but it was too late as he watched Sasori drove his way out of the car park. "He looks so familiar… Ah! He's that guy that Sakura brought the other day!"

Naruto stared at the money in his hand before shrugging and went back to his own work. "Perhaps I shall just call Sakura tomorrow."

0o0

"Scrrrreeeechhh." Sasori stopped his car right outside a bar. He would do anything to forget about that incident. But eating doesn't seem to work. He slammed his door shut, shuffling his feet inside.

_Numb_

The loud music in the bar blasted in his ears, yet he totally ignored it. He grabbed a seat and just sat there, in daze.

"Sasori, can't fucking imagine you here." He raised his heavy head to find the silver-haired bartender wiping a glass with a cloth.

"Hidan."

"What day is it to find you here? Like shit, you don't even drink."

Sasori waved the comment off, "Just give me something that can make me drunk this instant."

Hidan filled a glass with a sort of alcohol and pushed the glass forward. "You never drink heavily before, you should try this." Hidan said, but Sasori didn't care, he just wanted to get drunk using whatever method he can have.

Forcing the weird liquid down, he began asking for another, another and another. He didn't care when some women flaunt their bodies around him. He had no interest in them. He just continued to drown himself in alcohol.

"Did something happen to your work? Nah, it couldn't be. Had a fight with your girlfriend? Wait, you don't even have one. Then why the heck are you so depressed." Hidan went back cleaning the glasses again, staring weirdly at Sasori.

"Sakura…" Sasori suddenly mumbled, his head resting against his shoulder while shaking the empty glass unconsciously.

"The name sounds so darn familiar… Oh right, it's that Pinky." Hidan poured the drink as the redhead gulped it down within seconds.

"Sakura…" He kept repeating her name over and over again, until Hidan finally know what was happening.

"So it's that girl… That girl turned you into this…" Hidan ruffled his red hair. "So our poor solo boy must have found love!" He chuckled.

"Sakura…"

Hidan sighed, filling up the glass. "Calling her wouldn't help either… If I didn't have amnesia, I actually remember she had a boyfriend. Calling her brother-in-law, Itachi-_kun_. Sounds fucking gross." Hidan shivered while talking to himself.

Hidan just turned around and went back to do his things when there was not response. Sasori placed his head on his arm like a pillow, somehow happy that he finally got what he wanted; drunk and unconscious.

0o0

"Deidara, there's a problem, Sasori is drunk." Hidan shouted through the phone.

"Drunk? He's drunk? He never got drunk. He doesn't even drink yeah." Deidara stuck the phone between his cheeks and shoulder while watching a movie and drawing some random stuff during his inspiration.

"He's at one of the bars I'm working at." Hidan watched the unconscious redhead, asking for more as he slammed the glass on the table a couple of times. "I wanted to bring him home, but I have this fucking shift and I can't leave now." Hidan complained.

Deidara threw his sketch at one side of his sofa and sat straight, taking the phone in his hand. "Tell me where the bar is, I'm coming over." Right after Hidan told him the location, he immediately turned off his television and headed to the place.

0o0

"What the hell yeah." Deidara grabbed onto Sasori as Hidan finally shrugged him off his shoulder.

"He's drunk like some shit. And he kept mumbling that pinky's name all over and over like fuck." Hidan complained, patting his silver hair in place.

"Sakura?" Deidara's frown deepened, staring at the redhead who kept mumbling some incoherent words.

"Hidan! We need your help in moving these boxes!" A voice shouted from inside. Hidan looked back and rolled his eyes, not bothering to replied back. Deidara shook his head. "Just go back to your work, I'll deal with him" The blonde grabbed holds of Sasori's arm and put it around his shoulder.

"If anything held up, just call me. I'll be running over to help." After finishing his sentence, he whirled around and shouted some curses before entering the bar.

Deidara didn't said anything but just gave a last glanced at him before walking away from the bar, dragging his semi-conscious friend. Sasori's slowly fluttered his chocolate colored-eyes as his eyes slowly accustomed to the bright lamplights around him.

After blinking a few times, he finally realized who was dragging him away from the place he wanted to drown his sorrows. "What the hell… are you doing?" Sasori lifted his arm and stepped a few back away from Deidara.

"Bringing you home." Deidara seriously said.

"I can go home myself." Sasori stumbled backwards, heading to another direction and walked past Deidara like nothing. Deidara gritted his teeth, whirling around and glared at Sasori's back.

"You can't keep running away like this!" Deidara's temper finally blew up. He watched his drunken friend, stumbling forward whenever he took a step. The blonde wanted to help so much, but he knew Sasori to well; he would be pushed away even if he did.

"I'm not… running away…"

"You're not running away? What crap is this, yeah? Look at the state you are in now. Where is the all mighty strong and calm Sasori I knew?" Deidara yelled at him, getting pushed away again when the blonde tried to help the redhead up when he almost tripped.

"If you love her, you have to fight for it before it's too late yeah!" Deidara stood firmly in front of Sasori, forcing the redhead to look at him.

The blonde had known right from the start, all these while what Sasori's true feelings were. But Deidara didn't stepped forward to do anything, he always thought the redhead would do the right thing, the thing he should do.

But how wrong he was…

"I don't love anyone, so stop saying I do!" Depression obviously tainted in his tone. Their glare intensified, as if daring the other to look away first.

"Liar. Who do you think I am? A mere friend who know you for a week?" Deidara snorted back. Blue eyes still staring back at the brown ones.

Sasori sighed, knowing that there's not point in fighting with a stubborn guy like Deidara. Sasori just dug into his pocket and pulled out his car keys, lifting Deidara's arm and putting it in his hand. "I can't ride my car back. If you have the time, help me drive it back to my place. I owe you one. " With that, he pushed him aside and began walking again

Deidara closed his eyes and clutched hard onto the keys, biting his lips. "Why don't you say it out? If you kept it to yourself, no one will know what you are truly feeling and thinking! Especially when she's rather naive to do so yeah!" Deidara shouted, ignoring his changing of subject.

Sasori stopped in his track. His drowsiness was going nowhere, and all he wanted to do was to sleep for the entire life, if he could.

"Fine." Sasori said. Deidara immediately looked up, ignoring everything in the world. The blonde just wanted Sasori to say what he's thinking, to say how he feels, to say…

"If you want to know that much I shall tell you." Sasori turned around, his eyes staring right into Deidara's bright blue eyes. "I like her from the very start, and now what, I've fallen in love with her. Hard. _Very hard_. What can I do now? What can I do when she's been proposed and she agreed to it? What can I do about it?"

'_Proposed?'_ Deidara mused. _'What Proposal? Don't tell me yeah…'_

His brown eyes slightly wavered, from what Deidara could see. Deidara widened his eyes. The blonde knew, even when a large knife were to pierce right into Sasori's stomach, he wouldn't even shed a tear, but now… Was he...?

Sasori slowly turned around, and began walking, his steps were still uneven but he was very sure where he was heading. Deidara stopped in his track; he wasn't going to force him anymore.

He just watched his redhead friend disappeared into the shadows down the street.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

Bad… this is so bad… -Shakes fist-

After reading all your sweet reviews for the previous chapters, I just couldn't bear myself to write this one… -Takes all dangerous weapons and runs away –

Th-thanks for reading, r-reviews are very appreciated!

-Pocky


	15. At least Sasori was better

[ May I ]

_Let me raise you up_

"Good morning!" Sakura entered the office with a huge smile. Deidara was already on his seat, slightly irritated when there was a pile of of work left undone. But when he just seen Sakura's bright smile, he couldn't help but smile along with her.

"Good morning yeah." He smiled back. His eyes immediately glanced at the shiny band hook in Sakura's necklace. "Is that…"

Sakura looked down at her necklace and blushed, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah, yesterday I was proposed…"

"_What can I do now? What can I do when she's been proposed and she agreed to it? What can I do about it?"_

"You were? Let me guess. Itachi's little brother right?" Deidara tried to sound rather surprise. Sakura slightly blushed. "Yeah…" She shyly looked at the other side of the room when she noticed the empty seat on Sasori's chair.

"Hadn't Sasori come to work yet?" She asked, pointing at the seat.

"He was feeling unwell." Deidara spoke the half-truth.

"Is he alright? I called him last Saturday night, he sounds fine." Sakura said.

"Sharing secrets?" Deidara raised an amused eyebrow.

"No! Er… Something about work." She smiled, playing with her fingers, but Deidara knew something was up, but he didn't say anything.

"I shall continue with my work." Sakura said, moving to her own room.

"Sakura."

"Yes?" She spun around, glancing at Deidara with her two bright emerald eyes.

"Congratulations yeah." Deidara grinned.

"Thanks." Sakura smiled, felting her necklace once in a while. She turned back and continued her track to the room.

Deidara watched her back facing him, entering another room as the door closed behind her. His grip on his pen tightened.

'_Something is not right…' _

'_Her smile… it's just not right…'_ He began tapping his pen on the table, listening to the drillings in the room like a sort of lullaby.

0o0

Sasori kept rubbing his temple, but it didn't worked pretty well. He went over to his kitchen and poured a glass of water, trying to relief the pain in his head. He had never get such a worse headaches in his life, this ache couldn't even compare to the day when the glass bottle collided his head in the past.

He dragged his feet to the living room and was dizzy once again. He stumbled forward and grabbed onto the corner of the dining table, the glass in his hand slipped through between his fingers and smashed into pieces when it hit the floor.

The redhead closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He bent down and tried to pick up the shattered glasses, but before he could reach out for any pieces of glass on the floor, his eyelids suddenly became so heavy and darkness eloped him once as he closed his eyes. He just fell onto the ground, unconscious, with pieces of glasses and puddle of water beside him.

0o0

"Wait? Explain this right now Ms. Haru- I mean Mrs. future-to-be Uchiha!"

"Lower down your volume Ino!" Sakura whispered, looking around at the costumer, giving them an apologetic smile.

"So Sasuke proposed t-to you?" Hinata asked.

Sakura nodded, playing with the necklace around her neck. "It happened yesterday."

"I haven't told my parents yet, not that I don't know what their reactions would be." Sakura shrugged, drinking down her coffee

The three good friends were sitting in one of the café, Sakura had told what happened yesterday, and of course, not the whole truth either. She planned to keep the thing about Sasuke proposing her a secret first, but she just had to tell her two other best friends.

But like most of you know, telling Ino was just the same as telling the whole wide world.

Ino rested her chin on her palm. "I can't believe you are the first to get marry among the three of us." Ino sighed.

"I'm s-sure you would be next Ino" Hinata giggled.

"I doubt so, you don't even have a boyfriend yet." Sakura teased.

"You wait. I'll show you." Ino grumbled.

"Sakura, can I be the bridesmaid?" Hinata said shyly.

Ino immediately grabbed Sakura's hand. "Me too! Me too!"

Sakura laughed. "Sure sure, you two can do."

0o0

'_Proposed…'_

'_I get it now…'_

Deidara was driving in Sasori's red car back to the redhead's apartment like he asked him too. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the traffic had turned red.

"Sccccrreeech!" The blonde hit on the brake and actually managed to save his life when a few cars in front just zoomed past before him. A few documents along with a few of Sasori's belonging fell from the backseat because of the sudden halt. Deidara was about to turn over and picked everything up when a car behind him horned impatiently because of the green light.

Deidara sighed, returning back to his position and stepped on the accelerator, going full speed ahead.

Not long after, he parked the car at Sasori's favorite spot. He was about to alight of the car when he remembered the things that dropped on the ground.

He turned over, picking up the files and papers, until the blonde noticed a small box, a box that he himself was very familiar with. Deidara placed the rest of the items back to where it should be and took the box that was stuck under the seat. With a gentle pull, it came out as he inspected the box in his hand.

Giving a firm push, the lid opened, revealing a shiny diamond ring stuck in the middle of the box. Deidara's eyes widened traumatically. "This guy…"

Deidara didn't know what to say. If he were to find a ring in Hidan's car, he wouldn't be surprised at all. But instead it was Sasori's. Deidara continued inspect the ring, it seemed rather expensive. Deidara knew Sasori inside out. He's a very well organized person, yet he just threw such an important thing at the back of the passenger seat.

'_He must be really upset.'_

The blonde sighed heavily, closing back the lid. He grabbed onto the box and put it in one of his jacket's pocket. After locking the car, he trudged towards the lift, the car keys still in his hand.

The blonde walked into the lift, waiting patiently for the lift to reach the floor. He walked out of the elevator and looked at the door at the side of the corridor.

Deidara pressed the bell, waiting for Sasori to open the door for him, but no one answered. He rang again, but there wasn't any respond. Deidara started calling his house number, he could hear the ringing of his telephone behind the door, but he couldn't hear any movement inside to pick up the call.

'_Was he that drunk that he hadn't even woke up yet?' _Deidara wondered.

"Oh yeah." Deidara fished into his pocket and took out a huge set of keys. The blonde looked at each and everyone of it, trying to find one of the correct keys to get into the house.

'_I almost forgot I had Sasori's key when he first moved in here yeah.'_

After finding the right one, he put in the right key and turn the lock, opening the door.

"Saso-" Deidara dropped the keys in his hand, rushing to the broken glasses and the unconscious redhead on the floor.

"Sasori! Oi, don't scare me yeah!" Deidara bend down and shook Sasori but he didn't respond. The blonde nudged him several times. He quickly took out his phone and quickly dialed the number to the hospital.

After finishing telling the details, he grabbed his friend and pulled him up, setting him on his back as he carried him to the lift.

0o0

"Shit, I'm so darn late!" Sakura rushed down the bus and briskly walked towards her work place, looking at her watch every five seconds.

Sakura reached out for the glass handle and was about to push it open when she realized it was stuck on the spot as she slammed onto the glass door in the face.

"Ouch…" She rubbed her nose, her gaze then turned to the sign on the door that says "Closed."

"That's weird, why aren't they at work yet?" Sakura wondered aloud, taking her keys and began unlocking the door. Finally slotting it in, she pushed it opened and turned the sign to "Open." She went to the kitchen, to find no one there either. She walked up the stairs and looked around at all the room.

"Deidara didn't work overnight… and Sasori is nowhere to be seen. Where could they be?" Sakura went down the stairs and flipped through the schedule. _'Deidara had a meeting with the client in the afternoon, but where is he?'_ Sakura mused.

She took out her phone and dialed Deidara's number, but it always go to his voicemail; Sakura couldn't contact him at all. She clutched on her phone. "Could something happen to him?" She slightly panicked.

Sakura looked through her contact and finally found Sasori's number, she began dialing as well, but no one answered.

Haruno sighed, putting down the file and glanced at the room. It felt so cold and lonely suddenly, as if she was the only being in the world.

Suddenly, her phone rang. She immediately straightened her posture, thinking it was one of her boss who called, but to her disappointment, it wasn't.

"Hello Naruto." She said, making her voice as cheerful as possible.

"Sakura-Chan! I wanted to call you yesterday, but the business in my restaurant was so busy and I don't have the time to do so." He said.

"What is it that you needed to contact me yesterday?" Her curiosity getting the better out of her.

"The day before, Sunday. Your redhead friend came to our place and had the Ramen competition. He actually won, but he left the money and ran out in the middle of it. Why don't you come around here some day and get some vouchers for his compensation." The blonde said through the phone.

"Why would he be there?" Sakura muttered, leaning against the table.

"I don't know, but he really ate like… A lot. And he seemed to be upset over something when he came here. I do hope these vouchers can help him a little…" Naruto innocently said.

"Thanks, maybe I'll come over and picked it up someday." Sakura said, and she just ended the call there.

On the cue, the office phone rang, she immediately bent over and picked it up, but before she could say anything, a loud voice blasted through her ears and even when she put the phone away from her ears, she could still hear the loud voice.

"I called you two like some shit times and you all didn't answered, what the fuck is your problem?" The loud voice continued.

Sakura paused for a while, finding the voice very familiar. An image of a loud-mouthed, love-to-curse man with silvered haired and lavender eyes flashed across her mind.

"You're Hidan?" Sakura asked.

The caller stopped his yelling, and sucked in a deep breath. "Ohhh… You must be Pinky who worked for Deidara and Sasori. Where the heck are they, I called them like damn, and they don't answer or it ended at the voicemail." Hidan grumbled.

"To say the truth, I don't know either, I've been calling them and the results was the same as yours." Sakura said, her tone sounded depressed. "Anyway, is there anything you need to tell them or something? I can help you transfer the message when they are back from wherever they are now." Sakura said, tugging the phone under her cheek, grabbing a note pad and a pen.

"Nah, I just wanna ask how is Sasori now. I tried to contact them yesterday evening until now and they just don't answer it. So I tried calling their workplace." Hidan explained.

Sakura widened her eyes, putting down the notepad and pen. "What happened? Did something happen?" Sakura shouted.

"Calm down Pinky. Sasori came to my bar the other day and he was like so drunk that he might not even recognize himself if he were to stand in front of a mirror."

"Is it Sunday?' Sakura just asked.

"Wow, how do you know that, Pinky."

"Stop calling me that." She gritted her teeth, continuing. "Why is Sasori drunk? Did something happen to him that he went drinking?" Sakura asked in concern.

"Must be because of you." Hidan merely said.

"Me? What have I done?"

"Like hell would I know. When he was drunk, he kept fucking calling your name over and over like a broken recorder." Hidan complained.

Sakura's mouth slightly opened, her eyes wavered_. 'Why?'_

"Sasori couldn't hold his liquor, and he drunk like a whole tub of alcohol. Okay, maybe not that much but you get the point. I doubt he can stand and walk straight the next day with the headache he's going to get." Hidan shook his head.

Sakura took the notepad and pen again. "Can I have Sasori's address? I just felt slightly guilty when he got drunk… because of me. I mean, I don't know what was the real problem is." Sakura paused for a while, taking a deep breathe.

"But people says when someone is saying a person's name when they are drunk, there is a high percentage that the person he or she is calling, is the problem." Sakura said.

Hidan didn't say anything else and didn't prey onto the subject any further. He stated Sasori's address and requested Sakura to call him if anything cropped up, and they just ended the call.

0o0

Sakura got off the lift, looking around the long and narrow corridor. She glanced at the address, walking further and away from the lift. She sighed in relief when she finally found the correct house.

Sakura approached to the door and started ringing the doorbell, but there wasn't any answer. She continued pressing on the doorbell but she couldn't hear any movement in the house at all.

"Could I be at the wrong house?" Sakura checked the address again, scratching her head. "It's the correct one…" She mumbled.

"Are you looking for Sasori?"

Sakura spun around and noticed a lady carrying a ton of plastic bag in her hand. She seemed to have just come back from a shopping spree. "Yes, do you know where he might be?" Sakura politely asked.

The lady put down the bags on the floor while looking for her keys to open the door just right opposite of Sasori's. "Yesterday, a blonde; perhaps his friend, had found him unconscious in the living room. Sasori was sent to the hospital immediately afterwards."

Sakura cupped over her mouth, too shocked to speak further. She looked at the door before glancing at the floor. _'What could have happen?'_ Sakura pondered very hard. She looked up at the lady and spoke.

"Excuse me, but do you know which hospital was he sent into?"

0o0

Deidara stretched on his seat, staring back at Sasori who was lying at one of the hospital bed. He tucked both of his hand into his pocket as his hand felt upon the jewelry box.

The blonde sighed.

Deidara took out his hand and stood up, feeling sore all over his body. He looked at his watch and gave a yawn before walking out of the ward to get something to drink.

He walked down the quiet and empty corridor to find one of the vending machines in the hospital. Deidara slotted in the coins and pressed on the coffee button.

He took the cup and slowly trudged down the hall. While blowing the surface of the drink, he checked his phone for any messages or missing calls.

"Damn… there's no more battery, I guess I have to charged it later yeah." Deidara muttered to himself.

"Excuse me, is there any patient called Akasuna Sasori?"

Deidara looked up, putting his phone back into his pocket. "Sakura!" He said in surprise. But Sakura didn't seemed to hear or noticed Deidara, all her attention were just fixed on the nurse who was tapping the information on the computer.

"Yes. In ward 289, just down this hall." The nurse nodded and looked away from the computer, pointing down the corridor. Sakura gave a quick thanks and briskly towards the direction.

Deidara just stood there, puzzled. "How does Sakura know?" He just frowned but shrugged it off easily.

At one quick moment, the noticeable and unique pink hair was gone in a flash. Deidara quickly rushed down to find Sakura already in the ward.

He slightly pushed the door opened, leaving a small gap opened. The blonde looked at Sakura who grabbed the one seat that was left and sat beside Sasori's bed. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her wrinkles could be seen on her forehead. She rested her arms on the bed and looked at Sasori to see if he's all right.

'_Just like in the dramas yeah.' _Deidara mused, slowly closing the door. Of course, like in the dramas as well, he wouldn't waste this chance either. He patted on the bulge that was on his pocket while sipping on his coffee. Slowly and steadily, he left the hospital.

0o0

'_Where am I? White… Everything is white again… Like before…'_ Sasori slowly opened his eyes, staring blurrily at the white ceiling. He slowly turned to his side as his eyes still trying to accustom to the lights.

'_Pink…Am I imagining things again?' _

He continued staring at the sleeping figure, his vision slowly gained back to what it was before, and there, was the person that he never thought he would see.

Her pink hair covering some part of her face, a soft snore coming out from her as her chest rose every time she takes in air. To Sasori, she looks so beautiful even when she's sleeping.

"Sakura…" He said out loud, still trying to register what he had seen in his brain.

Sakura slightly stirred, she began rubbing her tired eyes and gave a yawn and a stretched. She looked tiredly around the ward until her eyes fell upon him.

"Sasori!" She immediately got up to her feet. The redhead sat up, fully awake and feeling as refreshed as ever. He looked around quickly. "Where am I?"

"You are in a hospital now, you fainted because you were sick yesterday. Deidara just called me and told me everything."

Sasori continued ruffling his hair until Sakura finished her sentence. His head shoot up and looked at Sakura. "Everything?"

"He said you eat a lot of fried food and got a fever, and probably fainted afterwards. You must have lack the sleep as well." Sakura said.

'_Not everything though…'_ He mentally sighed, still clearly remembering the thing that happened that day. His chocolate brown eyes slightly narrowed.

"_Sakura… Would you marry me?"_

His eyes softened immediately, recalling how happy Sakura was when she was proposed that night. Her smile, it was something Sasori can never give to her…

"Are you feeling better now?" She asked in concern.

"Feeling much better." He replied, giving a small smile.

"You have awakened Sasori. You just have to finish filling up the document and you may leave." The nurse said, entering the ward and rather oblivious to Sakura who was present.

"Are you sure there isn't any more problems?" Sakura asked again.

"There isn't any problem and he can be discharged right after he had woken up." The nurse just turned away from Sakura after lazily answering her question. She began smiling sweetly at Sasori. "I can bring you to the counter if you want, and I'm going to knock off now, we can go home together."

'_What's with that nurse? Her smile is creeping me out.' _Sakura frowned, taking by Sasori's arm and pulling him up.

"Let's go, I can bring him home. Your duty as a nurse ends here. And since Sasori can be discharged now, why don't we do it _now_?" Sakura said, slightly pissed off when the nurse was trying to flirt with Sasori. The nurse rolled her eyes at Sakura, taking the chart from the table and went back looking after other patients.

Sasori wasn't listening to the both of them, but instead, he visibly tensed when he felt Sakura's arm around his. He stood up and obeyed her as if she was his boss. When their arm came in contact with each other, Sasori's stomach fluttered, the back of his neck grew warm.

'_Her touch was so soft, just like this kiss…'_ He frowned

'_What the heck?'_ He rudely scolded himself. His eyes were still fixed on their arms that were entwined together.

Sakura lead Sasori to the counter and rested her arm on the table, telling the nurses about what the previous nurse had told them to do. Sasori suddenly freeze, as if the heat he needed was gone right in a second and the cold just knock him straight.

Right when they were still walking down the corridor, it was as if Sasori was running down a beautiful flower garden with cool wind brushing across his face, just like a place for Heaven. It was just magnificent.

But now, when Sakura's arm left his, Sasori felt like he was standing on a piece of floating iceberg, alone and stranded.

"Here's the documents, after signing all of these, you can leave now." One of the nurses at the counter said.

Sasori stepped forward and finished signing the things like what he supposed to do, it took a while but after that, they both of the trudged out of the hospital.

"Let's take a taxi. I'll give you a lift." Sakura said, trying to wave for a cab outside, but not even a single car was present.

"I can just take a bus home. It's more convenient." Sasori assured her.

"No can do. Look at the time now. There must be a lot of people squeezing in the bus since everyone must be knocking off from their work now. And you should be sitting down comfortably and instead of standing around in a squeezy bus." Sakura said.

She took out her phone and intended to call for a cab when a dark blue car just zoomed past her. Sasori and Sakura noticed the blue car as it was reversing back to where they were standing.

The windshield rolled down and the familiar Uchiha popped his head out of it, smiling at Sakura. The pink-haired girl gasped as she noticed it was actually her fiancée in the car.

"Sakura. Are you ready for dinner?"

"Sasuke!" Sakura said in surprise. "I thought I said you can pick me up at my place instead of this hospital?" She said.

Sasuke just shook his head. "I just wanted to pick you up and head for dinner. I wanted to see you for a while longer." Sasuke said. Sakura immediately blushed and looked at her feet in embarrassment.

Sasori glanced up and looked at Sakura, who was still looking at her feet. His brown eyes then slowly looked away, staring at the passing cars in the street.

And now, Sasori was still sitting there alone on the floating iceberg, feeling more cold and lonely before.

"Are you alright? What happened to you that you ended up in the hospital?" The Uchiha said, as if he was about to laugh.

Sasori knew it wasn't a question, but a sarcastic remark that wanted to tell the redhead that the Uchiha had won and he lost. Sasori turned his attention away from the passing cars and stared at the Uchiha. They just began their staring contest. Sasori's face was just as emotionless as ever while Sasuke had a smirk in his face.

"Sasuke. Can we bring Sasori back home before going to dinner?" Sakura broke the silent, feeling a little better to talk face to face with Sasuke once the blush on her face went away.

"It's alright." Sasori's eyes immediately softened as he broke away the stares and looked at Sakura. "I can go back home myself."

"Are you sure you don't need a lift? I'm worried for you. What if you were to faint in the middle of the street?" Sakura said, trying to pull Sasori into the car.

"I'm fine. Really." He said.

"Come on. You really need a lift. You still looked weak." Sasuke said, pointing at the back of his car.

"Yeah." Sakura just pulled Sasori and opened the car door for him without waiting for Sasori's answer. Sasori sighed, boarding into the car as Sakura shut the door for him.

She smiled and entered the car, sitting beside Sasuke in the front seat.

Sasuke drove off after Sakura told him the address. Sasori just sat there in silent, looking at the view outside.

Every time they stopped at the traffic light, Sasuke just have to turn around, ruffling Sakura's hair or saying sweet and mushy stuff that was so un-Uchiha style. Sasori knew what he was trying to do, and he tried his best not to see or hear anything.

His heart was aching more than ever.

After a long journey that seemed like years to Sasori, they finally stopped right outside his apartment. Sasori was about to get off when Sasuke interrupted his action.

"Have a good rest." Sasuke said, smirking back as he looked at the passenger's seat. Sasori just ignored him, alighting from the car and closing the car door. He turned around without even giving a polite thanks to them.

"Wait! Sasori!" Sakura winded down the windshield.

The redhead whirled around and looked back at Sakura, expecting her to say something.

"If you need anything, do call me. Don't go out alone. You still need plenty of energy since you just recovered from a high fever." Sakura said, the orange light made by the sun casted on her face. Sasori blinked. He immediately remembered the day when he kissed her… The day when he thought he could slowly showed his true feelings for her…

"Hey Sasori. Are you alright?" Sasori turned away from Sakura and looked at the direction where the voice was coming from. Sakura looked up as well, finding the voice familiar.

'_Oh… it's that neighbour.' _Sakura thought.

"I'm fine now. Did you come down for jogging?" Sasori asked, looking at her attire.

"Yup, I intend to go back now." Her gaze turned to Sakura who was staring at the both of them. "Oh it's you. The girl who came by this afternoon." The neighbor said in surprise, pointing at Sakura.

"Yeah." Sakura said, waving back.

Sasuke just turned away, uninterested.

The woman's attention turned to Sasori. "I bought a tons of things today. Why don't you come over to my house for dinner? You can't eat instant noodle everyday." She said.

"Thanks, but it's alright." The redhead said.

"Really, I bought a ton of food back and I'm sure there's enough share. If you don't believe, you can ask her." She continued as she turned to look at Sakura

"You do remembered that I bought a lot of food back home when I told you which hospital did Sasori went to, right?"

"Yeah, you should go over to her house and had dinner instead. She bought a lot of things from what I can see before." Sakura said, trying hard to smile.

"Alright, then if it's not the trouble.." He just said.

Sakura felt like getting off the car and pulling Sasori away, telling him she was going to treat him instead of going to his neighbor's house to eat. But how can she do that?

And… why does she _want _to do that?

"I should be going than. Still…Thanks for the ride anyway." Sasori gave a small smile at Sakura, ignoring Sasuke who tempted to give a glare at him. Sasori and the other then walked back to their house together.

"Bye..." Sakura said, still staring at the two who were walking to the building together. Sakura's mood seemed to be just like the colour of her eyes; Green with envy.

Sasuke's frown deepened as he looked at Sakura who was closing the windshield. The Uchiha didn't care anyway. Sasuke just stepped on the accelerator, speeding off.

"Is she your girlfriend? You and her seemed to be perfect together!" She asked, walking with Sasori to the lift.

Sasori just shook his head. "She's already attached." He mumbled, pressing for the button until the lift reached the ground floor.

0o0

'_Am I… jealous?'_ Sakura wondered, still thinking of the incident just now. _'But why am I jealous? Just now and at the hospital… Why do I have this feeling… as if I hated it?'_

"Are you alright Sakura?"

Sakura suddenly jolted from her thoughts, she turned her attention towards Sasuke and smiled. "I'm fine."

Sasuke didn't ask any further questions and just focused on the road. The entire journey was practically silent, but Sakura was already used to it before.

Sasuke was totally different from the journey before and now, but Sakura didn't care much _yet,_ she was still thinking about her reactions before.

Right in the middle of the quietness that Sakura enjoyed, Sasuke's phone rang. Both of their eyes immediately glanced at the phone that was vibrating at one of the holders between their seats.

Sasuke wanted to reach out for it but Sakura took it instead. "You should focus on your driving instead. I'll help you picked it up." Sakura said, looking down at the caller's name.

"Karin…" She said out loud.

At that moment, the car suddenly halted. Sakura slammed back to her seat as the phone almost slipped through her grip. Sakura widened her eyes in shock and looked at Sasuke. He didn't bothered and even asked if she was all right. The Uchiha just grabbed the phone from her grip and answered the call.

"Hello" He spoke.

"Un. I'll be there in ten minutes." He continued.

Sakura looked down at her feet again. _'Yeah… Another dinner ruined.'_

Sasuke cut the call and was about to tell her that they were not going to have dinner when Sakura turned and tried to make a smile. "I'm fine. Just send me home." She said.

Sasuke nodded, not even bothered to make an apology. He then continued driving, heading hack to Sakura's place. She began thinking back again.

'_Sasuke… he seemed to change right after Sasori alighted to car. As if, he was just pretending all along.' _

Sakura looked down at her feet again, _'Is he? Is he really pretending? I really… hope…'_

"We've reached." Sasuke said, looking down at Sakura. Sakura alighted from the car. "I'll get going." Sasuke merely said. He didn't bothered to wait or looked back to see if she had entered the house safely before driving away in his car.

_Nothing at all…_

_"I need to ensure your safety before going first." Sasori merely said as if it was nothing. _

Sakura watched the car drove off in a hurry down the street. Sakura sighed, entering her house. "At least Sasori was better…" She said. Her eyes immediately widened, remembering the words she said to Sasuke before.

_"If… If there was a chance for me to turn back the time…"_

_"I would rather be with Sasori than to be with you."_

'_Do I… really mean that before?'_ Sakura thought, she entered the house after slotting in the correct keys. She threw her shoe into one corner lazily and stared at the almost empty and lonely house. She lazily kept her keys properly before walking towards her room.

"If only I know what are my true feelings…" She mindlessly took her fresh clothes and towel and headed to the bathroom.

After a long shower, Sakura just grabbed a bag of chips form the kitchen and a can of soda, settling down on the sofa and switched on the television. She sat there, feeling as bored and always, eating chips and soda for dinner.

This wasn't the dinner she expected to have today. She thought she could have a romantic dinner with Sasuke, since… she _is _actually Sasuke's fiancée, right?

Sakura took out her phone and randomly looked through her contact list, popping some chips in her mouth.

"I'm really bored here…" Sakura looked down at the list, debating who she should harassed for the night

"Deidara? He must be busy, and it would be too awkward. Hinata? Wouldn't be good if she's having a family dinner right now. Ino? Nah, it would be her harassing me instead of the other way round. Naruto? The restaurant should be busy around this time. Sasori?"

She paused, still looking at the name.

"He must be busy too, since he eating with her together…" Sakura mumbled, rather oblivious that she was slightly pouting when she remembered the scene when Sasori and her neighbor were walking up back to their houses.

Right under Sasori's name, was Sasuke's. She scrolled down the list, staring at his name as well.

'_Sasuke…'_

Sakura looked back at her phone again, scrolling randomly up and down. She was really bored, and watching all these dramas on the television was going to bore her to death already. She needed to speak with someone. But who?

She closed her eyes, continued scrolling the list up and down. She randomly stopped at one and pressed the called button.

_Fate_

Her eyes immediately opened. And to her horror, her phone was actually dialing last person that she wanted to call right now. She almost lost the grip on her phone, as if the phone was on fire and it was scorching hot.

"Sasori! Why must I pick him? Oh No, what should I do? What should I do? What should I-"

"Hello?"

Before Sakura could rejects the call or do anything, she put the phone to her ears.

"_Hello!_" Sakura shouted through the phone.

0o0

Sasori unlocked his door and entered the empty house. He felt so full that even walking seemed very troubled for him.

He threw the key on the table. The shattered glass and the puddle of water that was left before he was taken to the hospital had been unknowingly cleared up as he inspected the floor.

"Must be Deidara's work." He mumbled, giving a last glanced around the floor before walking to the kitchen to get something to drink.

On the cue, his phone rang. He fished out the ringing phone and looked at the number, surprised.

"Hello?"

"_Hello!_"

Sasori blinked, raising an amused eyebrow. "Hello...?" He repeated.

"I'm sorry! Am I disturbing you?" Sakura said apologetically

"No, I was just about to get a drink." Sasori replied.

There was just silent, and all both of them could hear was Sakura's background music that was played on the television and the water pouring out form the jug and onto a cup.

"Weren't you out with Sasuke and having dinner? Are you at home?" The redhead said, trying to bring out a subject.

"Yeah, well. We were. But he had something going on, so I ate…" Sakura stared at the chips on her lap and cleared her throat. "I had take-away. So I'm pretty fine." Sakura said.

Sasori frowned, his frown even deepened when he realized something was wrong. "Something more important than taking you out just for one decent dinner?" Sasori muttered under his breathe, slightly irritated at the idea.

"He's busy." It was that two words, that two words that completely killed off the conversation.

Sakura always dreamt to have a happy family, a husband that could actually bring her out for dinner every single day, talking about any subject that they can talk about.

And then, they might have children; one or two would be fine. She would cook at home, and her faithful husband would come back from work everyday, giving a peck on his wife's cheek and hugging the children, asking if their day was great.

Just that, and Sakura find it very perfect for her. She doesn't need money or any fancy clothes, she doesn't need anything, she just want to have a great dinner with all of her family and closed ones.

But even fulfilling this simple dream seemed already very difficult already; when her future-husband was always busy with work that he hadn't the time to even see her back to her own house before driving back to do his things.

"Sakura?" Sasori called out for the third time.

"Huh? I'm sorry. I was thinking about some things." Sakura replied. She leaned back onto her sofa before clearing her throat, deciding that she had to ask this question.

"Your neighbor, I don't know what's her name but… You and her- I mean, did you had full at her house?" Sakura asked.

"I did. If only I could eat like that every single day when I came back from work, it would be pretty nice actually." Sasori blurted out.

Sakura suddenly blinked, "Really? I mean, you do?" She said, rather excited.

"Yeah." He said casually. "Does this freak you out? I mean, I'm the type that people must had thought I rather had dinner by myself…" Sasori continued.

Sakura mentally squealed in her head, but then, her enthusiasm quickly died down.

'_If only Sasuke is like Sasori…'_

"No it did not, everyone would love to have a great dinner with friends or family after their day at work." Sakura said, before a sudden thought struck her mind.

'_Of course… Sasori always ate alone, since his parents were gone since young…' _

"But hey… you must have enjoyed eating over at her house today." Sakura said, her tone tainted in slight disappointment.

"Her kids are rather hard to deal with though, running around and refused to take their veggies." Sasori laughed lightly through the phone.

"Ki-Kids?"

"She's married, with two kids."

Weird but true, it was as if a huge boulder was lifted from Sakura's heart. She felt relieved and happy at the same time.

"She's married? I see…" She said merrily, cupping her hand over her mouth from the shock she got. She was practically overjoyed for nothing, or actually for knowing that her 'rival' had a family already.

"Is there something wrong?" Sasori asked.

She stopped grinning like mad and tried laughing, but failed miserably. "No, nothing actually. She looks young and pretty of course. And I thought you two were toget- I mean I thought she was still single. Hahaha." Sakura chocked onto her saliva.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Pretty fine." She said clearing her throat and coughing once in a while.

"Anyway… Sakura, I hadn't congratulated you yet." Sasori gulped down the drink in his hand as he leaned against a table, placing the drink on the table carefully.

"For?" Sakura continued eating the chips.

"You and Sasuke are going to get married aren't you?"

Sakura couldn't make out Sasori's voice, it was as if he had a sore throat or a pretty huge lump had stuck in his throat. But Sasori did tried his best making his voice as calm as possible.

"How did you know?" Sakura was indeed surprised for now.

There was just silence, and all Sasori could think of a reason was;

"Deidara told me about it, yesterday." He said.

Sakura just stared at the television screen, without using her greasy hand that was taking the chips. She used the clean one and rubbed the ring between her two fingers.

"Thanks. News does spread fast." Sakura laughed.

Sasori tried to smile, to be truly happy for her, but he just couldn't. He mentally sighed, looking out of the window.

After a while, there was just silence, and Sakura thought that he had already ended the call. "Sasori?"

"I'm sorry, my phone is going to run out of battery, and I was trying to find the charger…"

"Why don't you go and find it, I shouldn't be wasting your time anyway." Sakura said quickly.

"Alright then." He said.

"Bye, and if you feel unwell or anything, don't ignore it." Sakura started nagging again.

"I won't. I promise." He said only.

They ended their call after giving their wishes for the night. Sasori went back looking for his charger while Sakura continued watching the television.

Sakura sighed, trying to make herself focus as she watch her drama. But her mind slowly started to drift on its own.

Even though many people had wished her happy, congratulated her about the proposal. She still doesn't feel as happy as she should actually be.

It was as if, it was a wrong choice after all…

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

I'm sorry that I didn't get to answer all the reviews, and even answered twice to some reviewers. I'm going nuts and crazy lately D:

Thanks to everyone who even continued to read this story until this far. I wish you all a Happy New Year!

-Pocky


	16. Steak or Ramen?

[ May I ]

_Let me be your love_

"Sa-Sasuke…" Sakura gasped for air, clutching onto her chest so ever tightly till it hurts, but it didn't hurt as much as how her heart aches so painfully. Her tears freely rolled down her cheeks. She raised her hand and pointed right at the redhead who was on the bed, fully naked.

"Why? Why did you betray me... Why?" Sakura screamed. Her eyes were so wide almost like a ping-pong ball. She couldn't believe what she just saw.

"Sakura." Sasuke turned and gave a peck on the redhead girl's forehead. "She…" He rose from his bed after pulling up his loose trousers, "... Can give me the pleasure that you can't, and never will."

"You bastard!" Sakura marched forward and was about to slap Sasuke when he stopped her right before her hand managed to touch his face.

"Sakura… we're over. Right now, that woman on the bed is mine. You are nothing to me, but something worthless in my eye…" He gave a short sigh, as if he was feeling guilty for saying those harsh words to her.

"You are just plainly annoying."

Sakura's eyes flew open and gave a scream. The bag of chips fell onto the floor as the chips scattered onto her carpet. Sakura blinked, her heartbeat continued to beat very fast and her hair was soaked in cold sweat. She looked at all the corners in the house and then at the television that was still playing the show that she was watching a while ago.

"I must have dozed off. The dream must be influenced by the show." Sakura said, calming herself down. "Dream are always the opposite or reality. It's untrue, definitely untrue." She continued repeating it in her head.

Sakura take in another deep breathe, resting her head on the sofa. "Why am I doubting Sasuke? I have to trust him, I'm supposed to!" She muttered under her breath, using both of her hands to cover her cheek.

Sakura closed her eyes, the image of Sasuke's betrayal kept repeating in her mind. "Sakura, stop this!" Sakura slapped lightly on her cheeks. "I guess I shall take another bathe to clear my head." She said to herself, rising from the sofa.

"How could you do this? How could you betray me? I always love you!" The actress screamed as she continued crying.

"I'm sorry… But I love her more than you. Hate me if you want." The man turned away.

"You- I hate you! Forever!" The girl screamed, running away as the guy watched her sadly from afar.

Sakura shook her head, turning off the television. Her dreams definitely must have been affected because of the show.

"Okay, stop thinking about all these betrayal stuff. Nothing is real, this show is not real either." Sakura threw the remote control on the sofa angrily. She picked up the scattered chips on the floor and threw it away, before stomping back to her bedroom.

After a while, the lights are off, and the house was just in silence.

0o0

"Why didn't Sasori come to work today?" Sakura asked worriedly, staring at the empty sit behind the desk.

"I told him not to, he just recovered yeah." Deidara assured her.

Sakura scratched her head and slightly laughed. "I almost had forgotten about it."

She wasn't too much of the surprise. It would be best for Sasori to stay at home anyway. She just walked into the room and looked at all her almost-done work.

Deidara sighed, looking back at the empty seat. "If only Sakura knew…"

0o0

"Ding-Dong."

Sasori looked up at the door with a bored look. He sighed and lazily stood up from his comfortable couch and walked to the door, opening the door to find none other than his best friend; Deidara.

The blonde walked in while Sasori closed the door for him. "I've settle your work stuffs for you yeah." Deidara added, sating beside the counter.

"I owe you two then." Sasori said, pouring a glass of water in the kitchen and handing the glass to Deidara.

The blonde accepted it and finished it in a few gulps, putting the glass on the counter. "Here's your car key." He fished out the keys and placed it beside the glass. Sasori gave a faint smile and took it with the empty glass, murmuring a thanks while washing the glass at the sink.

"And I think you shouldn't be leaving such things in the cars too yeah." Deidara took out another object from his coat pocket and placed it on the table. Sasori lazily glanced behind his shoulder at what Deidara was talking about until his chocolate-brown eyes laid upon the small box.

The redhead immediately stopped his washing, putting down the glass in the sink. He dried his hand with the side of his clothes and slowly looked up at the blonde. Deidara wasn't that easy to fool, he knew whom the ring was meant for.

"How did you…" Sasori asked

"Found it, not that I inspected your car or anything." Deidara tapped softly on the box. Sasori watched the object for a few seconds before turning away from him and stared at the sink.

"Sakura, this is for Sakura. Right?" Deidara asked, wanting to make sure of it.

Sasori didn't answer, still looking down at the sink.

Deidara waited, and waited for the answer. Deep down, the blonde knew Sasori was trying hard to find an answer. And in the end, the redhead did replied, but it was not the answer that the blonde was expecting.

"She's better off with Sasuke." The redhead said only

"You are just giving up now?" Deidara shouted immediately after Sasori finished his sentence. "This thing still hasn't end yeah!" Deidara argued again.

"Like I said before, what can I do when Sakura agreed to the proposal?" Sasori challenged Deidara back.

Deidara paused for a moment, he hates to think, and it seems to be a waste of time to him. But for Sasori, he thinks, he's smart, the redhead love to play mind games and always thinks out of the box and solved difficult questions easily.

But Deidara was certain. There must be a loophole to all these stupid games and the question that Sasori threw at him as well. Something was just not right. It doesn't fits in perfectly in the story, and as if one part of the section went missing and the story was incomplete.

And out of nowhere, something amazing struck Deidara's mind.

It wasn't anything amazing and good. It was something horrible and awful.

"Wait… you knew that Sasuke proposed to Sakura on the same day, yet Sakura didn't told anyone about it until the next day." Deidara widened his eyes slightly as his delicate eyebrow turned into a huge ugly frown.

"Don't tell me, you saw it yeah. You saw it with you two eyes. As if it's live-in-action, and that's why you know about it." Deidara asked, hoping that he got an answer that he didn't want to get.

Sasori's face totally give it all away, even though his expression was hard to read sometimes, but this time, Deidara didn't mistaken it. It's true, the answer he didn't want to get was true, so true and obvious.

Deidara slammed his fist on the kitchen table. "I know you can tolerate all sorts of pain, but how can you do this to yourself?" He raised his voice.

Deidara grabbed the box and opened the cover, grabbing the silver band and shoved it in front of Sasori's face. "At least leave some dignity for yourself yeah! Sasori! Sasori! Can you hear me? Where is the usual Sasori that I met for this past few years?"

Sasori just gave a blank look, not bothered by the blonde's remark.

"This is useless anyway." Sasori grabbed hold of Deidara's wrist and took the ring between his fingers, walking to his window. Without warning, he raised his hand and threw the silver band right outside the house.

Deidara widened his aqua-colour eyes and rushed beside Sasori, popping his head out of the window and looking down the block. Judging by how it looks, it seems impossible to retrieve back the ring if it were to roll down to the drain nearby.

He slowly closed his bright-blue eyes in anger and took in a deep breath, getting back in and glared at Sasori.

"I'm done with it. I'm not going to care. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to help anymore. If you want it to be like this yeah… It's fine with me, I'm out of here." Deidara shook his head while shrugging as well. He walked around Sasori, stomping out of the house and slammed the door shut behind him.

Sasori slightly turned, watching his friend out of his place. The sound of Deidara's footsteps become softer and softer till it was gone. All Sasori could hear was the same ticking of his clock he heard everyday in the living room.

Sasori felt something bulging in his hand and his attention immediately went back to his clenched fist. He lowered his gaze and lifted up his arm to waist level and slowly unclasped his hand.

The silver band was still in his hand, shining as brightly as possible. He didn't threw it out of the window like Deidara had thought he did. He kept it, because couldn't bear to just throw it away.

It's not because how expensive or beautiful the ring was, but it's because this was the first, and perhaps the last time that Sasori had fell in love with this girl that played with his heart. The ring in his hand held so much meaning to him. Even though this silver band does not represent anything such as a marriage contract between husband and wife, but it meant so much and different to him than anyone else.

Why?

Because, the ring was the only motivation for him to continue persevering, having the courage to step forward from his own lonely world and love someone so deeply till it hurts.

Love, what's love to him?

The clock ticked softly in the living room, it's been a few minutes since Sasori just stood right in the middle of the kitchen, staring at the ring. Hundred of questions kept crashing him, until he almost couldn't breathe for a second. The redhead wanted to run to Sakura's house so much and yelled it into her face.

_I love you Sakura!_

He thought for a moment, trying to capture the picture of Sakura's reaction. And to find it rather disappointing and slightly amusing, the only thing Sasori could picture in his mind was just rejection, rejection and rejection.

'_She loves Sasuke, and she can only be happy when she's with him.'_ He kept repeating this horrible sentence over and over in his head, unable to stop.

After deciding what to do, he closed his eyes and walked to the table, grabbing the small box and headed to the small dustbin at the corner of the kitchen.

Even though he pretended that he threw it out of the window, he thought he could actually silently kept the ring instead. But thinking twice again, maybe not. Maybe he should throw it away instead, he doesn't need the ring anymore. Why does he need any more courage to love again when his only love went away?

At that moment when he let go of the ring and the small box, it was as if the clock had stopped ticking and the time stopped for a second. Both object slowly landed into the bin and lay in the corner with some useless papers and plastic.

His heartbeat seemed to become slower and slower, almost stopping. The atmosphere turned tense and the room became gloomier. He turned after giving the last glance at the dustbin and walked to his room, closing the door quietly behind him.

And the clock in the living room magically began ticking again.

0o0

"Is Sasori feeling unwell again?" Sakura asked, looking at the empty seat for the second time. Deidara didn't bother turning and answered directly, his eyes were fixed on the computer.

"I don't know, ask him yourself." He muttered dangerously.

Sakura stiffened her posture, she never seen Deidara so scary and his whole happy-go-lucky attitude totally disappeared into mid-air, as if there was a dark aura around him. Sakura could obviously see he's in a really bad mood.

"Then, I'll go back to do my things." Sakura knew she wouldn't be expecting answer, so she went back to her work and closed the door behind her. Deidara stopped typing the things into his computer and stared at the door. He was about to speak up but decided not too.

'_Right… why am I bothering anyways yeah.'_ Deidara thought angrily, going back and began on his work.

Sakura gave a huge sigh and looked sadly around the room.

"Should I tell Itachi about it? I know I shouldn't be caring much about these things, but something must had happened between Sasori and Deidara." Sakura quietly thought to herself, settling her things down.

She took out her phone and punched in the correct number to Sasuke's brother. After a few moments, the receiver finally picked up.

"Hello Itachi-kun." Sakura lowered her volume, avoiding Deidara to hear her conversation behind the door. "There's a problem here, and I think you and the rest can help out."

0o0

"Sakura." Sasuke said. His fingers intertwined with Sakura's.

Sakura had just knocked off from her work, and to her surprise, Sasuke had actually went to pick her up from her workplace. Both were walking along a small park beside the beach, a small breeze would occasionally blow and messes up Sakura's pink and silky hair. Sasuke's hair was just still neatly in place. Hardly anything can mess it up.

Sakura looked up, glancing at the stoic Uchiha and expecting him to continue his sentence.

"Why don't you quit your job and come over to work with me?' He said.

Sakura immediately stopped her stroll and looked at Sasuke, her mouth opened wide. "You know I hate those sit-down-and-stare-at-the-computer job. And I love my current job, I don't find the need to change it." Sakura protested, letting go of Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke just pulled Sakura towards a nearby bench and sat on either side, facing the huge crashing wave and the sea. A few kids were building sandcastle, collecting seashells and swimming in the water. But there was just silence between them, and Sakura knew Sasuke was angry with her for not listening to him.

"Sasuke, we can-"

"Sakura, you know I love you right?" He said, his gaze was just looking forward and staring at the huge sea, not facing Sakura at all.

This time...

Sakura's stomach didn't flutter like before.

Her heart didn't beat as fast as before.

Sakura felt… the words were just so cold and filled with emptiness. She didn't feel anything when Sasuke said the three words. She just felt like it was just any three normal words that meant nothing to her in the world.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah, I know." She muttered.

Sasuke nodded like he expected her to replied like he wanted, he stretched his arm and put it around Sakura's shoulder.

"We can be closer together, don't you think so? Instead of going to work alone everyday, I can give you a ride to work and back home. We can spend more time together." He said, only thinking of himself. He never spared a thought for Sakura, he never cared if she liked the job, or if she was fine with it. He wanted it to be his own way.

Sakura heart sank, she was so happy with the current job that she might have forgotten that Sasori was a little mean to her in the beginning. Even though there seemed to be a few problems lately with Sasori, but she had to admit that she was so much happier than any job she had in the past 25 years of her life. She almost had forgotten how much she hated the office's lady job until Sasuke held up his suggestion.

"Sasuke, maybe we can sort this out without having me to quit my current job." Sakura protested.

"I just want to spend more time together." Sasuke said.

_Lies…_

"Instead of working under the two nobodies."

"How can you say that?" Sakura flared up, turning and slightly glaring at Sasuke. "I'm sorry Sasuke, but you have to respect them as my friend and my boss, you can't call them so rudely like nobodies." She spoke cautiously.

"Why are you defending them? Don't tell me I can't even compared to any one of them." Sasuke lifted his arm and away from Sakura and straightening his posture, both of his brows drawn together.

Sakura grimaced. "It's not like what you meant, even if you were to insult any of my friends, I would have the exact same reaction as before."

There was just a moment of silence, no one spoke at all, the birds were silence and all the kids had went back to their parents, the only sound that was breaking the silence was the crushing of waves. Sasuke sighed, he turned around and gently caressed Sakura's cheek.

"Sakura, you have to understand my feelings, I want you to have the best of everything. Listen to me and quit your job, if you are close to me, we can discuss on our marriage earlier than before."

"What- Marriage?" Sakura turned her neck so quickly that she thought it just snapped into two.

"My parents were pressuring me right after Itachi's engagement party. They knew you were the right one for me, and I know I've picked the right choice. So they started asking my when would we picked a date together for the wedding, it's just sooner or later." The raven-haired man said.

"I actually joked with Ino and Hinata that day, I didn't know that we are talking about this together now." Sakura flushed.

"Hn, aren't you eager for it?" He asked.

'_Eager… I'm eager? Am I?'_ Sakura slowly turned and stared at the waves.

'_I don't feel excited nor happy like before, as if… the happiness I always wanted is draining away from me, slowly but steadily. I don't feel at least happy at all." _She pondered hard.

'_Before that, I was always so delighted when Sasuke bring me out for a date. I found it so caring and thoughtful, and etcetera. But now, I don't feel overjoyed at all. As a matter of fact, I sometimes felt reluctant about going with Sasuke.'_

"Sakura?"

'_But why… Why do I feel so exactly different when I'm with Sasori?'_

'_That one time when we are out at Naruto's restaurant, eating together, I felt so relaxed and comfortable with it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner like it supposed to be. Even though it wasn't delicacy or anything, it's definitely much better than eating steak with red wine in a tensed and uneasy situation. I hate that feeling, I don't want that at all…'_

"Sakura, are you listening to me?" Sasuke shook Sakura and broke her line of thoughts.

Everything, everything that she was thinking moments ago, immediately vanished into thin air like nothing.

"I'm listening, I'm listening." Sakura replied.

Sasuke frowned deepened, but he ignored the fact when Sakura was obviously not paying attention. "Quit your job and come over to work in the business industries with me."

"Sasuke, I already said I-"

Sakura's phone suddenly rang out of nowhere, like it actually knew Sakura was in trouble. She rummaged through her bag and took out the phone, picking it up.

"Hey Ino." Sakura said, trying to lighten her mood to the furthest extend as she could.

"Sakura! It's been a while since we had dinner together with Hinata. Are you free tonight?" Ino said.

"It's Ino, she's asking me if I'm free tonight to have dinner with Hinata and her as well." Sakura said, covering her phone to avoid Ino from hearing the speaking. Sasuke just ruffled Sakura's pink hair. "You should go with them, I have something to do at the office anyway."

Sakura was a little bored and sick of Sasuke's same excuse for telling her to have dinner on her own, or when she needed his help in something. She gave him a chance, yet he just took advantage of it. She replied to the caller rather disappointedly.

"I'll be coming over in a minute, where is the place?" Sakura nodded after hearing the location and hung up, turning to face Sasuke.

"Let me just give you a ride." Sasuke stood up, at least knowing that he had the responsibility to send her fiancée to the place where she was going.

Sakura nodded, seeing that Sasuke's mood changed slightly, she gave a silent sigh of relief. They walked silently to the car park which was just opposite the park.

Sakura told Sasuke where the place was, and he just gave a slight nod. And right when there were in the car, it was practically silent, if a pin were to drop, it would be as if a meteorite had crashed onto Earth.

Sasuke stopped the car right outside the said restaurant. Sakura finally cleared her throat, deciding that she should speak first.

"Let's talk about this matter next time, okay?" Sakura said, giving a small peck on his lips. Sasuke made a grunt and looked out of the other side of the window. Sakura pulled away as her eyes immediately held with disappointment, but she easily hid it well. She alighted the car, shutting the door behind her.

No goodbyes, no wishes, and he just drove off without looking back.

Sakura just turned around and headed to the restaurant, not really bothered about Sasuke anymore.

"Seats for?" The waiter said at the entrance.

Sakura managed a smile before looking around, and she immediately spotted two unmistakable friends with blonde and another with dark purple hair.

Sakura just pointed at her friends and the waiter understood and stood back, letting Sakura to enter. She walked to the table and sat in between Ino and Hinata.

"You are finally here forehead." Ino gave a bored look, resting her head on her palm.

"Sorry I'm late. This dinner is on me." Sakura smiled, pulling the chair and sat on it.

"I should have order lobster instead. We've ordered a set for you since we are waiting for a while." Ino pointed at a waiter who was carrying their food towards the table.

Hinata helped to put the correct orders in front of Ino and Sakura, including herself too. They began eating their dinner and Hinata and Ino were usually the ones that were starting the conversation, and only occasionally when Sakura would add in a few comments about their conversation. The rest, she just remained silent and eating a few mouthful of food.

Not just saying Ino, but even the sometimes-not-so-observant Hinata noticed something was wrong with Sakura too.

"Sakura, are you not hungry?" Hinata asked in concern, noticing that Sakura was still staring at the large amount of food that was still remaining on her plate. She jolted out from her thoughts and looked at both of her best friends who were looking at her. "I'm fine." Sakura sighed, playing with the fork in her hand.

"If there's a-any problems, you can tell me. I can try my best to help you." Hinata said, still not convinced with Sakura's reply. Sakura just shook her head.

Ino narrowed her yellow eyebrow, "We are here for you, if you kept pushing us away, we can never help you, but it's fine with us since we don't even care." Ino said in a grumpy mode even though what she said was utterly opposite of what she meant.

The blonde hated it when Sakura always pretends to be fine when everything was _not_ fine at all. If Ino were to know that Sakura had been hiding the truth about the incident before with Sasuke, she would really flared up and crushed the whole restaurant into pieces.

Ino can tolerate if others were to keep secrets from her, but if it were to be Sakura and Hinata, it would be a definite no-no.

"Ino, You don't have to b-be that harsh." Hinata nudged the blonde quietly. Ino ignored Hinata's pleas and stared right into Sakura.

"So?" Ino directed Sakura to tell them. Hinata turned and looked at Sakura as well.

"I'm just confused over something." Sakura sighed, looking at her plate.

She felt like crying, crying on both of her best friends' shoulder. But Sakura always put up a brave front, unwilling to show anyone her weak side. She doesn't want anyone to worry for her.

"Confused over?"

Sakura bit her lips, _'Ino is right, I can't kept keeping it to myself. I told Sasori not to do the same yet I'm doing what I had told him not to do.'_

"I love my job, I really do. You to know I hated being an office's lady. But… Sasuke wanted me to quite my job and go over to work with him in the business industry." Sakura sighed inwardly.

"Did you tell him you l-love the job?" Hinata asked, putting her hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"I did! But he just wouldn't listen. I don't know if he was jealous because I was working with Sasori and Deidara, but he just kept forcing me to work with him. I really don't know what to do. I don't want just because of such a small matter, and both of us had a tiff and ignored each other…"

'… _Like we always before.'_

"If he loves you, he should always spare a though for you, be there for you. But what is he doing now? Giving you more burdens than you already had. This is not what lovers should do to the other!" Ino picked up the fork and jabbed it without mercy onto the cloth that was over the table, remembering her previous _ex_-boyfriends

"Maybe Sasuke really cares for you." Hinata said, trying to put everything on the bright side.

"We'll sort this out, thanks guys." Sakura could only managed a faint smile as she returned to her food.

Ino sighed, putting the utensil on the table. "I can't say anything Sakura, but as long as you truly know you love Sasuke, I have nothing to comment or say anything about it. We will just hope you two can settle this straight without anything going wrong." Her tone changed and all Ino gave was a caring smile.

Sakura gave a blank look, still staring at her food. It was not because she was daydreaming and didn't listen to Ino's advice, but it was because she was thinking exactly what the blonde had said;

"As long as you truly know you love Sasuke…"

"As long as you truly know you love Sasuke…"

Ino and Hinata just gave a quick glance at each other before heating up another conversation to brighten up their mood.

Deep down; not just Ino, but Hinata as well, noticed the changes in Sakura. Sakura was upset, even distressed than a kid who just lost their favorite toy. She felt so confused inside and does not know what to do. She had to choose, she knew Sasuke very well. If she doesn't follow what Sasuke told her to do, he'll definitely ignored her until she does what he told her to.

'_As long as I truly know if I love Sasuke?' _Sakura mused, finding the question rather amusing and hilarious. Sakura just gave a faint smile and slight shook her head, continuing eating her dinner.

'_Love? Like? But seriously, I don't even bother to know if I even hated him or not anymore…'_

0o0

"Ding Dong."

Sasori turned his head away from the television. He frowned and stood up, walking towards the door and pondering who could the visitor be.

He opened the door, and slightly not-so-surprise, there was Itachi, Hidan and the rest of the gang waiting outside the door, holding onto plastic bags and cartoons of drinks. "We decided that it would be your house where we would be partying at." Itachi said, even though his face was still as emotionless as ever.

Hidan stepped into the house without waiting for an invitation. "How shitty long has it been since we partied at your house?" Hidan wondered aloud, walking past Sasori. The redhead stepped aside, surprise as he looked at the silvered-haired man who was putting the bags at the counter.

Once Sasori made the wrong move by stepping aside from the door, everyone began entering the house. It was Itachi first, followed by Kisame, Pein and Kakuzu. But to Sasori's bewilderment, he never thought he would saw the blonde along with the others.

"Come on… move it, what are you waiting for? A red carpet?" Konan shoved Deidara inside.

"I can walk yeah, you don't have to push." Deidara narrowed his eyes at Konan before looking up at the redhead. The blonde just raised the cartoons of drinks in his hand. "I just can't miss this out yeah." He spoke, slightly softer than usual.

Sasori just shrugged and pointed at the kitchen, "I suppose you know where to put the things." The redhead said. Deidara gave a faint smile and entered the house with Konan.

The rest had put the things down, and sat on the couch, ready to leave the kitchen to Konan.

Deidara immediately scurried to find a seat while Sasori followed Konan to the kitchen. "You need help?" He asked, even though they were totally ruining his privacy alone at his house, but barging into anyone's home without warning was the gang's responsibility as a best friend.

"You can go and sit down." Konan pushed the redhead out of the kitchen and to the living room. "Deidara, come here and give me a hand." Konan pointed at the blonde who pretended to not hear anything.

"Deidara move it." Kakuzu pushed him out of the couch as the blonde almost fell. "You!" The blonde yelled, pointing accusingly at Kakuzu. The banker ignored the glare and continued reading the newspaper he bought.

"Ask Hidan, he's free yeah." Hidan then pointed a middle finger at Deidara.

"No No, I want you to come here." Konan wagged her finger and headed for the kitchen. The blonde groaned and followed the woman-in-charge, while the rest let Sasori sat on Deidara's space.

"Why not Hidan, not Kakuzu, not Pein, not anyone but me yeah." Deidara said unwillingly. He hated preparing food. He hated it because everyone always mocked him that he was a girl when he does.

"I don't want Hidan's babbling and saliva all over the food. And instead of preparing the food, Kakuzu would be complaining about the price instead. Kisame would probably throw away the fish and seafood quietly when I'm not looking. And you said before… Sasori was feeling unwell a few days ago, shouldn't be straining him too much." Konan said, taking out the food from the plastic bag.

"Pein? Itachi?" Deidara said.

"Just shut up and helped out. You can get more share if you do." Konan muttered angrily. Deidara's eyes lit up and quickly began following Konan's order as well.

Konan crushed the wrapper into a small ball and walked towards the small dustbin at the corner, she was about to throw the plastic bag away but she freeze when she inspect what was the content in the bin.

"What? Is there a mouse in there?" Deidara noticed Konan's reaction when she was looking down the bin. Her eyes were wide than usual. Deidara thought Konan would scream when there's a mouse; if she's a girl of course, but instead, she bend forward, to Deidara's surprise.

Without Deidara knowing, She took the shiny object from the bin and inspected it.

She stood up, bending back with the ring between her fingers. It was shining very brightly like it was polished a while ago. She slowly turned and looked at Deidara, who was too stunned to speak anything. Konan knew something was wrong as she quickly turned around and looked at the redhead in the living room, who was sitting alone quietly, staring at the television screen.

"Deidara, what is this all about?" Konan muttered quietly, ordering him to answer while waving the ring in her hand.

The blonde gulped, trying to look away from her glare that was directed at him. "I don't know, I really don't know yeah…" And that was what Deidara said.

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

Woah, everyone seems pissed at Sasuke lately. But I don't really mind because I love Sasori the best. –HA- I like Sasuke though, when he's not in his_ I-Want-Revenge _mode

Reviews are always appreciated!

-Pocky


	17. He really loves her

[ May I ]

_May I hold you_

"Kisame, pass me the other plate that were left on the table please." Konan gestured the empty plate of food at the far end of the table. Kisame dragged his feet and did what Konan asked him before camping at the couch after their dinner.

"Be a man and help out the dishes." Itachi pushed Deidara out of the seat for Kisame. "Why am I always picked on yeah?" Deidara grumbled, being pushed to the kitchen by the others.

"Because you are the youngest here. You should help out more." Kakuzu mumbled. Deidara muttered some incoherent words before glancing at the woman washing the dishes silently. He gulped.

_"You won't tell me? Fine." Konan put the silver band back into her pocket. "I'm going to ignore you." She narrowed her eyes, returning back to the preparation of the food._

People would have heard "Honesty is the best Policy", but if you were with Konan, people would have to go with, "Ignoring is her best policy."

'_Argh, woman are just a nuisance and confusing at heart yeah. It's not like I don't want to say it, but I- Sasori would kill me!' _Deidara took a few tentative steps forward.

"Hey lady, need help?"

Konan was definitely angry and frustrated to ignore help from someone when washing the dishes. But she did tell him that she would ignore him form the start. Itachi had planned this 'surprise' party because he was told by Sakura that Sasori and Deidara seemed to be having a bad term with each other, but they doesn't need a second one if it was just making peace between Deidara and Konan.

"You have bad breathe, go away." Konan muttered.

Deidara made a face. "You don't have to be like that right?" Deidara whispered. "I'm trying to help-"

"If you tell me, I'll let you wash the dishes." Konan made a fake smile.

"What kind of deal is that?"

Konan pulled Deidara into the kitchen and grabbed a knife which was conveniently placed near the sink.

"Spit it, or I'm really going to flare up."

"Ok, fine. Put down the knife yeah. It's really dangerous." Deidara protested.

Konan smiled and put down the knife like what Deidra requested.

"I can't really say everything yeah." Deidara said, glancing at Sasori once in awhile in the living room, feeling rather guilty for betraying his trust, but he had no choice. "It's this girl, Sakura. You know Sakura don't you?"

0o0

"Why don't you all go first? I think I need to go to the bathroom for a moment." Konan clutched onto her stomach tightly.

"Are you alright?" Pein looked at her worriedly.

"I think I have a stomachache, I'll be fine in a minute, why don't you got get the car and wait for me in the car?" Konan suggested while walking to the bathroom and waved everyone off. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged, including Pein. They just head out and while biding their childish 'goodbye' and walked down the long corridor to wait for the lift.

Sasori closed the door and approached to the bathroom, knocking twice.

"Konan are you alright?" He asked.

The door suddenly opened and almost scared Sasori in the broad daylight. Konan just wordlessly pushed Sasori to the living room and made him sit down on the sofa.

"Aren't you having a stomachache?" Sasori glanced suspiciously at Konan.

"No, I'm lying. But I'm not the only one, you are lying as well." The woman looked at him.

"When did I lie?" Sasori asked weirdly.

Konan leaned against the sofa and put her hand into her pocket, fishing out the shiny diamond ring in her hand.

Sasori's eyes widened slightly. He frowned and looked at Konan. "You-"

"Don't tell me you bought this ring for yourself. Don't give me anymore lame excuses." Konan shook her head when Sasori opened his mouth.

"This ring is for Sakura right?"

"Did Deidara-"

"It's not his fault. Deidara didn't tell me anything regarding about this ring. I was just testing you. So this ring indeed is for Sakura." The woman smirked.

"You like Sakura don't you?"

0o0

The lift finally reached the floor as all of them entered into the lift. Itachi suddenly stopped on his track and frowned.

"Wait. I think I left my wallet in Sasori's house." Itachi patted on his empty pocket. "You all can go without me." The others just shrugged and pressed on the button for it to close.

Itachi walked back to the corridor and reached outside Sasori's door and was about to press the bell when he heard a conversation inside.

"You like Sakura don't you?"

Itachi's eyes widened, looking at the door as if it was transparent. _'What?'_

There was just silence, all he heard was just some movement in the house.

Then, there was a soft clink behind the doors, all Itachi could think of what could have made the sound was an object placing on Sasori's glass table.

"Sakura is an innocent and naïve girl, that must be one of the reason you've fallen for her." Konan said, looking at the ring on the table. "But like what I've said, she's naïve, you have to tell her your feelings and not kept it inside forever, find a chance, and tell her. Maybe things would turn out right."

"I would really take her away and marry her, if I know she loves me as well." Sasori joked.

Konan frowned, not thinking Sasori's joke was funny, but actually took it for serious. "You'll do it right? If Sakura loves you as well, you'll take care of her right? Like husbands and wife." Konan asked again.

Sasori gave up pretending to laugh and instead looked at Konan, who was still serious all these while. Sasori gave a faint smile and looked away, and for the first time in his life, he officially blushed in front of Konan.

"Sasori… You…" Konan was almost about to cry, it was the first time she had seen Sasori blushed so adorably. Konan couldn't imagine that the Sasori she knew would have such a cute side when he's in love.

'_Sasori really loves Sakura. He really really does…'_ Konan smiled.

Itachi slowly put down his hand away from the doorbell and into his warm pocket.

'_Sasuke… Sakura and Sasori.' _The Uchiha turned and walked back to the lift, feeling even more confused then ever.

'_I can't believe this.'_

0o0

"Thanks Ino and Hinata." Sakura said, putting a few boxes into Ino's car. "We should be th-thanking you instead." Hinata said, looking at the things that Sakura had gave them because of the limited space she had when her parents were going to move back with her and staying at her place for a few weeks.

Ino leaned against her car and looked back at Sakura. "Our pinky girl is going to get married~" Ino said merrily. Sakura rolled her eyes, shaking her head, hardly even smiling at all.

"Sakura, you should be bu-busy these few days right? Since your parents are coming back." Hinata asked.

Sakura sighed, nodding her head. "Very busy, I didn't know wedding would be that stress, I thought it should be something… _happy."_

"Come one Sakura, cheer up, you looked so gloomy like you had fallen in love with the wrong person." Ino went over and pinched Sakura's cheek. "The bride should be the happiest woman in her life, even when the wedding planning would be stress." Ino continued.

"I know I know." Sakura rubbed her cheek painfully. "If you are jealous Ino, get yourself a boyfriend instead of whining all day long." Sakura said, before turning to Hinata. "You too Hinata. You might think Naruto is in his restaurant goofing around, but there are a lot of pretty girls served as waitress too." Sakura wagged her finger.

"Re-really?" Hinata blushed, looking down at her feet.

"But of course, you are the most beautiful among all of them." Sakura patted Hinata's head. Hinata blushed even further.

"Alright, we should get going then. If you need any help, just picked up your phone and I'll be flying over." Ino winked, getting into her car. "Me too, but I would be driving o-over." Hinata smiled, getting into Ino's car as well.

Sakura gave a faint smile, bending down and looked through the clear window. "Thanks guys, you are the best." Sakura said. Ino and Hinata gave a wave before driving out of Sakura's gate.

Sakura waved back, watching the car turned down to another street. She sighed, and immediately her smile fade away and her eyes turned rather dead than usual.

She walked back into her house and looked at her rather empty house once again. She trudged towards her couch and slumped onto it, staring into space.

Her wedding would be held in a week time and her parents would be coming back in a few more days from the overseas trip. She looked at the ceiling and sighed, feeling more stressed than ever.

Sakura slowly turned to the other side and her eyes laid onto the photo frames on the table. She sat up and straightened her posture, picking one of the photo frames that mostly caught her attention.

Sakura looked at the photo in her hand, the photo that Deidara, Sasori and her took when there were barbecuing at the rooftop. She stared at the photo more than a minute, not at the delicious food that were stacked behind them at the table, not at Deidara's foolish face, and of course not at herself either. But at the redhead that was sitting on the chair, trying very hard to smile. She sighed, resting the photo on her lap.

And slowly, Sakura began drifting to a peaceful sleep.

0o0

"It's Saturday, going out with Karin today?" Itachi casually said, flipping through a random magazine. Sasuke stopped climbing up the stairs, glancing behind his shoulders. "What the shit are you talking about."

"You know what shit I'm talking about, aren't you having a sweet time sending messages to each other, planning what movies would you be watching together in an hour later?" Itachi threw the magazine on the table and looked back at Sasuke.

"You checked my phone? Who gave you the authority to take me phone?" Sasuke stomped down the stairs and stood firmly in front of his brother, looking down at him. Itachi then stood up and since Itachi was taller than Sasuke, it was his turned to look down at his younger brother.

"Why can't I take your phone? Little brother? When you actually took my phone and get Sasori's number, asking him to meet you." Itachi raised his volume and challenged back at Sasuke.

"I don't get what you meant." Sasuke glanced at the other side of the hall, refusing to look at Itachi.

"Your contact list had Sasori's number, and you called him before a few weeks ago. May I know what was that for?"

"I want to make more friends, does that matter?" Sasuke scoffed.

Itachi laughed lightly, finding the sentence the funniest line he ever heard.

"Friends, yeah, you need more friends, my foolish little brother." Itachi gave a light pat on his head. Sasuke slapped his hand away, looking at his brother in disgust. But then Itachi's face became serious again.

"Karin? She is your secretary right?" Itachi questioned.

"And so what if she is?"

"Sasuke, you are going to marry Sakura in just a week, how can you do this to her?" Itachi frowned very hard.

"Why do you care? It's none of your business, don't even try to get involve in this." Sasuke jabbed his finger at Itachi's chest.

It was Itachi's turn to slap his brother's hand away. "I don't care who she is, just fire her. Now." Itachi gritted his teeth.

"Shut the fuck up, you doesn't have the rights to care about my life." Sasuke glared at his older brother.

"I have the rights to care about how you are going to treat Sakura in the future." Itachi glared back at him. And his glare was really terrifying.

Sasuke grunted, rolling his eyes at him. "Fuck off, mind your stupid business." Sasuke turned and walked past Itachi and up the stairs.

Itachi watched his brother as he slammed his own door shut. The stoic Uchiha remained silent. He wanted to protect Sakura from any harm that his stupid brother would give to him when they were married. But how?

Out of the confusion, he picked up his phone and began calling Sasori.

0o0

"It's not like the Itachi I knew who carelessly left his wallet at my house." Sasori handed the wallet to the Uchiha who took it after giving a soft "Thanks."

"I've actually heard everything." Itachi suddenly said, putting his wallet in his back pocket. Sasori raised an eyebrow, trying to understand what he meant.

"I overheard what you and Konan were talking about." Itachi plainly said.

Sasori freeze in his position. He felt anxious inside and worried. _'Why the hell is more and more people knowing about my problem?'_

"You knew?" Sasori only said, showing a not-so-surprise-face as he hid his true expression behind his mask.

Itachi glanced at the lady who was playing the piano at the corner of the café.

"In just one week time, Sakura's fate is fixed, and so is yours. If you didn't try, how would you knew the outcome, you have to do something in order to change it, you can't expect it to change on its own." Itachi began his longest speech ever in his life.

"Tell her that you love her, say your feelings. Who would knew, Sakura might be confused with her feelings just like yours."

Sasori tried to laugh, but he looks like his lips were quivering instead.

"Why are you helping me? I mean, Sasuke is the groom, and he's your brother." Sasori said.

"I'm not helping either of you, to be exact." Itachi firmly said, slightly surprising Sasori.

"I just don't want to see Sakura cry anymore."

* * *

Sasuke's phone suddenly rang, and immediately after he looked at the caller's name, he rushed to the kitchen and picked up the call secretively.

Itachi looked weirdly at his brother, and quietly lowered down the volume of the television, focusing between the conversation between Sasuke and his caller. He slightly shifts his position so he could clearly see Sasuke in the kitchen.

"She had not forgiven me yet, I know. I don't know what to do yet. Of course I had not forgotten our promise." Sasuke said in the phone.

Itachi narrowed his eyes and strained his ears to hear the conversation more carefully. "What idea? Proposing? She would forgive me if I made this move? Why didn't I actually think of it before?" Sasuke said. Itachi observed that the worried expression ion Sasuke's face was immediately lifted up after listening to his caller's 'idea'

"If only she even answered my phone, then I'll make my move. I know. I only had to satisfy her and make her trust me again. Your idea is good, you girls like diamonds and all these kind of stuffs right? If I were to propose to her in front of all the people, she would definitely agree." Sasuke then smirked, leaning on the kitchen table. After a few moments of silence, he nodded a few times in the conversation and finally said something out loud, not even caring if his brother could hear his conversation or not.

"Of course I know what I'm doing. Once she agrees to marry me, I can get her family fortunes and take all the money from her, and then we can be together again."

* * *

Itachi lowered his gaze and at the table. He couldn't believe what he heard at first. Sometimes, he thought he was just hallucinating and his brother wouldn't have such kind of thoughts on Sakura.

He missed Sakura's smile. Her smile was the beautiful thing he ever seen other than his own wife. For the past 4 years Sakura and Sasuke had been together, Sakura's smile seemed to be getting lesser and lesser and lesser.

He wanted Sakura to always smile the brightest like what she did in the past.

* * *

"Is that your girlfriend?" Itachi raised an amused eyebrow, looking at his younger brother and a shy girl with pink hair standing by his side.

"Sakura, this is my brother, Itachi."

"Hello Itachi-kun." Sakura raised her head and peeked at Itachi. He gave a smile and walked towards the two of them. "Is this your natural hair colour?" Itachi joked, playing with her long, pink and silky hair.

"Stop making fun of her." Sasuke made a face at Itachi.

"I'm so sorry." Itachi made an overreacting-apologetic face. "Is that necklace your 21st birthday present?" Itachi noticed a beautiful necklace hung around Sakura's neck. She immediately went to clutch it. "How did you know?" Sakura said in surprise.

"My foolish little brother had dragged me to a jewelry shop and forces me to choose a necklace for his girlfriend's birthday present this year." Itachi said. Sakura immediately blushes and smiled.

"Hahaha, what a funny joke you had. Let's go Sakura." Sasuke grabbed hold of her hand and went up the stairs and to his room. Itachi shook his head and sat down on his couch again, continue reading his magazine.

0o0

"Sakura, is that you?" Itachi rushed down with an umbrella in his hand. He immediately bent down and looked at the girl, shivering in the cold weather. Sakura slowly lifted her head and Itachi could only see her bright emerald eyes, while the rest of her features were covered by her arms or by the hood she was wearing.

"I-I'm sorry." Sakura sniffed.

"Why are you apologizing?" Itachi said, shifting the small umbrella over Sakura's head to prevent her from getting drench any further; not even caring if the rain was actually soaking the back of his body. Sakura just shook her head, and went back crying.

"Why are you wearing a hood? It's covering your beautiful face and hair." Itachi tried to take the hood of her. Sakura immediately gasped, and tried to cover the hood back but it was too late, Itachi had seen everything.

"Who did this to you?" Itachi inspected her newly cut-short hair that was tangled up in a mess. It was obviously not the work of a hairstylist, it seemed that someone had actually forced to cut her hair when she doesn't want to.

Sakura sniffed again, hugging her knees very tightly and laid her head on her on her arms, sobbing once again. "Everyone wa-was jealous that Sas-Sasuke was da-dating me. The gi-girls went to c-cut my hair. What i-if Sasuke doesn't li-like me anymore because of my ha-hair?" Sakura cried, hiccupping in between her sentence.

Itachi laughed, holding onto Sakura's arm and lifting her up, "Come on Sakura, you're still beautiful even when your hair was no longer as long as before. You are still gorgeous in everyone's eyes. Sasuke love the way you are, not how you looked like." Itachi said.

Sakura finally looked up with her two swollen eyes. "Are you sure? But… Sasuke likes girl with long and beautiful hair. He wouldn't like-"

"Sakura, I promise. If Sasuke were to hurt you in anyway, I would never side with him. Take me as your brother instead." Itachi said, before continuing.

"Why don't you tell me who did this to you. Tomorrow, you can compare with them who had shorter hair." Itachi said, slightly serious in his tone.

"Itachi-kun… Thank you…" Sakura smiled, tugging onto his arm, as they slowly began walking back to the Uchiha's estate.

* * *

Sakura had changed a lot just for Sasuke, all these while, Itachi could clearly see how much Sakura had loved Sasuke.

Even though he knew what Sasuke was doing; cheating on Sakura, trying to ruin her future and reputation. Itachi couldn't stand it, he wanted to tell Sakura, but he couldn't just say, "My brother is cheating on you and decided to take all your family fortune from you and run away with another woman." That would be ridiculous.

"I don't know how to help Sakura. You love her don't you? Like what almost everyone had told you before, you have to tell her your feelings. Run after your happiness, not sit there and wait for happiness to get you." Itachi said.

Sasori looked down under the table, thinking again by what everyone had told him again and again.

_"If you don't say your feelings and thought out, they can't understand, especially Sakura." Temari said, deciding to go straight to the point. "Not everyone is that professional and able to read your mind like Tsunade and I."_

_Deidara closed his eyes and clutched hard onto the keys, biting his lips. "Why don't you say it out? If you kept it to yourself, no one will know what you are truly feeling and thinking! Especially when she's rather naive to do so yeah!"_

"_Sakura is an innocent and naïve girl, that must be one of the reason you've fallen for her." Konan said, looking at the ring on the table. "But like what I've said, she's naïve, you have to tell her your feelings and not kept it inside forever, find a chance, and tell her. Maybe things would turn out right."_

Sasori kept repeating them in his mind, maybe… maybe something could change when he speak out what he had been feeling all these time.

Maybe, something unexpected could had happened…

"Sakura is just like a sister to me. You are my good friend, and Sasuke's my brother." Itachi said, resting both of his arms on the table.

"Your point?" Sasori looked at him.

"It's obvious Deidara must have convinced you a lot of times to tell Sakura your feelings. And you didn't."

Sasori just kept silent.

"Think about it, I'm not stressing you." Itachi said, slightly opposite at what he was saying. "You are my good friend, I'm trying to help out. I don't want to get anyone hurt. In this one week, you have this chance to change your happiness, including others as well." Itachi took his phone from his pocket and began dialing Sakura's number.

"I promise I won't say anything further until when you got the results." He finished punching in the correct number and waited for the other party to pick up his phone. Sasori didn't move or snatch the phone away; he just looked down at his feet.

"Hello?"

"Sakura." Itachi said through the phone. Sasori's head shot up, his attention was focused onto Itachi's conversation. But to his surprise, the Uchiha actually shoves the phone to Sasori, signaling Sasori to answer it instead.

Sasori at first shook his head quickly, but Itachi just remained still, expecting him to take the phone from his hand. The redhead sighed, admitting defeat.

"Hello? Hello? Anyone there? Itachi-kun?"

"Um, Sakura. It's me, Sasori." The redhead mumbled, looking at Itachi all the time.

"Sasori? Is there something I can do for you?" Sakura asked, wondering if Itachi was actually with Sasori.

"I-" Sasori's eyes looked worriedly at Itachi, his red eyebrows frowning and begging for Itachi's help.

Itachi pretended to picked up and fork and a knife, and started cutting up something with the utensil and put the "food" in his mouth. Sasori understood what he meant and take in a deep breath.

"I was wondering if you want to go out for dinner tonight." Sasori said quickly, almost too quickly that Sakura might have missed out a few words.

"Sure! Ino had actually recommended a restaurant to me a few days back. Maybe we should dine there." Sakura suggested.

Sasori took in another deep breathe, repeating the location Sakura had told him over and over again until he clearly memorized it. After picking perfect time which both agreed on, Sasori hung up and placed Itachi's phone on the table.

Itachi was feeling uneasy all the while, but he didn't show it or mentioned it. He felt selfish all of the sudden. He cared for Sakura; he wanted to get Sakura away from Sasuke but he doesn't want to let Sasuke get into trouble for doing such awful things to Sakura.

But then, did he actually think for once, what if Sakura were to reject Sasori?

How could Sasori ever dare to stand up and love again?

How could he mend his broken heart when the others were celebrating the meaningless wedding held by the Sasuke and Sakura?

0o0

"Hello Sasori." Sakura walked into the restaurant after finally finding the redhead sitting in the corner alone.

"What's with the sudden treat?" Sakura smiled, sitting down on her seat.

Sasori started to panic. He felt that he couldn't do this. While the waiter approached them and gave them the menu, Sasori put his hand into his pocket and pulled out the silver band that he was keeping all along. He started playing with it while Sakura was choosing her dinner.

"Sasori, what about you?" Sakura handed the menu back to the waiter while looking at him.

"Same as yours. Anything is fine." Sasori mumbled quickly, handing back the menu too. Sakura nodded at the waiter as he stepped back and went to do his things. "Sakura." Sasori suddenly spoke.

"Yeah?" Sakura looked at Sasori, expecting him to asked her his question.

"Can I share with you, a short story that I've encountered?" Sasori mumbled.

"Of course, I would be glad to hear it." Sakura said, resting her head on her palm.

Sasori gulped, and looked at his feet. He kept fiddling the ring in his hand and took in a breath.

"There was this kid with messy red hair and nice handwriting. And 20 years ago, a uniquely pinked-haired girl saved this boy from his nightmare. At first, I found this girl rather clumsy and cute, but slowly, he realized that he had started to like her even when the interaction he had with her was less than an hour. But then, he thought he'll never see her again."

Sakura blinked, she looked at Sasori, trying to register what Sasori was talking about.

"But then, a few months ago, they coincidently met again. At first the boy wasn't aware, but his feelings slowly reappear again like last time. He tried to ignore it because the girl already liked someone else. But then, for the first time in his life, he picked up the courage and decided to step forward to tell how much he love her."

Sakura's heartbeat almost stopped, a huge lump was stuck in her throat, her cheeks turned slightly warm. For some unknown reason, her eyes began to water.

Sasori slowly looked down and under the table. He kept fiddling with the ring in his hand.

'_What- What does he mean…' _

"Sakura. I love you."

There was a moment of silence at first, but then Sakura began laughing. She cupped over her mouth, giggling and leaned closer to Sasori.

"This is one of hidden camera pranks right? Nice try, but I'm not falling for that." Sakura laughed lightly, looking around to see if there were any cameras shooting both of them now.

"This isn't a prank. I'm serious. I'm really in love with you." Sasori said, gripping onto the ring till his knuckles turned white

"Sasori, this joke isn't funny." Sakura stopped her laughing and turned serious, looking at Sasori with two of her bright emerald eyes.

"I'm not joking Sakura, I love you." Sasori repeated.

The three words that Sasori said was absolutely different from how Sasuke had told her last time. What Sasuke said was just dull and empty. But when Sasori said it, it actually had a total different meaning. Deep down, Sakura could just feel how much Sasori had love her all these while by just expressing those three little words.

He really loves her.

Sakura stood up, pretending to laugh once again but failed miserably. "Sasori, I'm going to get married in a week, you can't just confess your feelings to me like that." Sakura said, a huge lump in her throat, almost ready to cry anytime.

"That's why I'm telling you, if I didn't, I might really regret it." Sasori looked at her, her brown eyes wavering.

"I don't want to mess this up, we are still very good friends, only until that extend. Nothing else." Sakura tried to argue back.

"Don't you like me? Doesn't it cross your mind before?"

"I don't want to think about it."

"Sakura, I really really like you!" Sasori shouted. His voice almost turned hoarse like Sakura's.

"I don't want to hear it!"

A few custumers were looking at them, feeling very worried for the 'couple' that were arguing in the restaurant.

"Then tell me, tell me do you-"

"Ok, fine. I don't love you. I mean- I don't even like you. To me, you're just an _ordinary _friend!" Sakura shouted.

That was the last thing Sasori wished to hear, and her words sure stung Sasori really painfully and badly.

"Friends?" Sasori repeated the word, finding the word like an alien to him.

"I'm sorry, Sasori. I can't do this. I love Sasuke. I can't do the same to you. It's _impossible_." Sakura slowly stepped back and away from the redhead, her tears started flowing as she tried to hide it by rubbing it away.

"I'm really sorry Sasori." With that she turned around and immediately run out of the entrance.

Sakura ran out, followed by a few murmurs and chatters in the restaurants. Everyone was looking at Sasori, expecting what he's reaction would be. Even the waiter that served them a while ago was afraid to approach him.

Sasori calmly took out the money and placed it on the table. It was like a daily routine for Sasori. That day when he witnessed Sasuke's proposal to Sakura, he left the money on the table for his coffee and ran out. It's the same. He was never fated to love someone. It seemed to be like a curse.

He just slowly walked out of the said restaurant and continued a different path that Sakura had ran to and down the gloomy streets.

0o0

Sakura kept running, she just continued running as fast as her legs could carry her. As she was not much of an athlete type, she started to slow down, her heartbeat kept beating very fast and unable to return back to its usual pace.

Sakura started wiping her tears that she cried in the restaurant, but no matter how many times she did it, more tears would continue to flow out. Her eyes were swollen and puffy red.

"I can't... Why, why am I even crying?" Sakura slowly sat down on a nearby bench, placing her bag next to her and hugged her knees tightly. "Why do I feel so horrible and frustrated when I said all those stuffs? Wasn't it real? Wasn't my true love only Sasuke? Wasn't Sasori just my ordinary friend?"

"I don't understand. I'm confused!" Sakura screamed out loud, messing up her pink hair. "I'm supposed to love Sasuke, but why do I felt so wrong when I said that I love him. But instead, I felt even more wrong when I said I just treat Sasori as an ordinary friend. Why is this happening to me?" Sakura shouted, more tears rolling down her cheeks.

All her emotions started pouring out from the bottom of her heart. She continued crying and crying, without even stopping.

This was the first time she cried so hard; even worst than realizing Sasuke betrayed her before. She couldn't stopped, her heart was aching more than anything else in the world

She couldn't put an end to it.

0o0

Itachi had been in his car, waiting for Sasori's news for 2 hours. Being slightly impatient, he got off his car and went to the said restaurant, but he couldn't find Sasori or Sakura there. He went around searching for the two nearby, until he finally found the redhead, sitting on a swing alone under a lamppost.

Itachi frowned and rushed forward, standing right in front of him, but both of them were silent. Itachi for once thought Sasori was too happy that Sakura had actually loved him back. But on second thought, he highly doubted it. Not that he had no confidence in Sasori, but the story line just doesn't fit at all.

Itachi was wrong; he had given Sasori so much hope, telling him that he can do it, saying that he could change his own happiness. But now all Sasori left was a useless ring that meant nothing at all.

The creaking of the swing continued for another minute, and finally Itachi got tired of the silence and stopped the swing, trying to get Sasori's attention.

"Sasori how did it…" Itachi paused his question and looked at Sasori who slowly raised his head and stared straight into Itachi's eyes.

Sometimes, words weren't necessary

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

Was this rush? D: I originally planned another way round, and it would probably break down into two chapters instead of one. But I guess it would be really a drag.

Someone is going to Jashin my butt if I didn't put Sasori and Sakura together in this chapter XD

Sorry that I didn't get to reply to all reviews, but seriously, all these reviews cracked me up like hell. I love you guys all the way! -Throw chocolate cookies into the air-

-Pocky


	18. Best Friends

[ May I ]

_As you fall-to-sleep._

"You are feeling unwell as well?" Deidara frowned, his tone sounded worried.

"Sorry to give you trouble." Sakura sighed.

"No, it's not a trouble, it's just that…" Deidara paused, looking at the empty chair behind Sasori's desk. "It looks like everyone been getting the flu lately yeah." Deidara returned to the phone.

"You are feeling sick as well?" Sakura asked, hugging her knees to herself while sitting on her couch. She didn't know what to do about yesterday but to run away. And the first step in doing so was to skip her work and avoids Sasori.

"No it's not me, it was Sasori yeah. A while ago, he called and told me he was feeling unwell and decided not to come for work." Deidara explained, tapping his pen on the desk to the rhythm of his favorite song.

Sakura paused, unknowingly, her eyes shifted to the photo frame of her two male friends and herself at the rooftop having mini barbeque party and roasting marshmallows. They were so happy together before, but why does everything had to end up like this?

Sakura knew that the redhead must had been thinking exactly what she was planning all these while. To run away and avoid each other, and even possible in trying to get out of each other's life.

"Sakura?"

"Oh Sorry, I was thinking about something else." Sakura shifted her seat and reached out for the photo frame that she had been staring for a while. Sakura just turned the photo to the other side and facing away from her, before returning back to her seat, looking at the other direction.

"About Sasori, lately he's been-"

"Sorry Deidara." Sakura gulped, obviously tensed when she heard his name. "I'm having a headache and I would like to rest, sorry about that." Sakura continued, rubbing her temple with her hand as if she was really having a headache.

"Oh I'm sorry yeah. Rest well and get well soon." Deidara said.

"Thanks." Sakura answered, and shut her call before Deidara could even say anything. She knew she shouldn't be so rude, but she was really tired.

She does not know what to do and who to talk to about her problems. But all of the sudden, someone surprisingly popped out from her mind, but Sakura shook her head immediately the minute she even try to think about it.

Sasuke? Haha. It was a pretty nice joke. But it wasn't funny at all.

How ridiculous. Should not be Sakura sharing her problems with her fiancée? But instead, she felt so weird, she never explained how she truly felt whenever they had dinner or after they had watched a movie.

It was Sasuke's choice, his decision, and she just shrugged it off and agreed with his idea. He wouldn't let her choose, or giving her any choices. His words were final, and Sakura just followed.

But Sasori, he treated her like his princess, doing things that were best for her, comforting her when she's hurt, being there to listen when she had so many things to pour out from her heart.

Sasori was just there, for her when she truly needed him.

But the wedding date was made, everything was prepared and everyone was expecting a perfect wedding between the Uchiha and the Haruno.

She can't tell Sasuke, she can't tell anyone, not that she does not trust Ino or Hinata, but she rather kept everything to herself instead of making the whole situation any worse and just let the damn wedding go on and get on with it.

But the more she thought about the number of days left to her wedding, the more upset she become, the more she thinks about how Sasori felt when she said those awful words, she felt even worse than before. She closed her eyes and snuggled herself into her own arms.

_"Tell me who is it! Maybe I can help you!" Sakura said excitedly, waiting for Sasori to answer her question._

_"You…would?" Sasori looked at her surprisingly, yet she still doesn't know she was the one that he was referring to all along._

_"Yup! I'm sure the person would be the most fortunate girl in her life." Sakura grinned._

Sakura's eyes immediately flung open, remembering the things she said to Sasori back then. He told her that he liked this girl for a while, but from the details that Sasori told Sakura was that the girl he liked had a boyfriend. And Sakura was trying to cheer him up and giving him hope, telling him that the girl would like him back. And never for once did Sakura ever think that Sasori was talking about her.

But no matter what, it was actually her that gave him so much hope in the first place, and in the end, it was her that destroyed his hope and broke his heart when she ran out of the restaurant.

Before she knew what happened, she began sobbing again.

0o0

Sasori tucked the phone beneath his ear and booted his computer while grabbing a chair to sit down.

"Go check your email, I've sent you the details." Temari said excitedly.

"Okay…" Sasori just did what she had ordered him, and while Temari was waiting patiently for Sasori to finished doing what she told him to, she kept babbling about the amazing scenery in Sunagakure.

And of course, he didn't mentioned what had happened yesterday night. After Itachi found him on the swing, Itachi didn't say anything, not until when he drove Sasori home.

_"Sasori, I'm-"_

_"I'm fine, I've expected it." Sasori forced a smile. "But if you could keep this between the two of us, I would be awfully grateful. I wouldn't want Deidara nagging all day and Hidan babbling all those words into my ear, and especially Konan as well." Sasori whispered, he hardly could even speak properly with the huge lump that was stuck in his throat._

_Itachi looked away and down at his car. "I know."_

_"Thank you." Sasori muttered, walking back to the building without looking back._

"You've seen the mail?" Temari finally stopped talking and went back to the topic.

Sasori was scanning the mail that Temari had sent to him; it was actually an application form for going over to Sunagakure to further pursue his career.

Sasori finished reading the email and closed the page, shutting his computer. "I've a lot of things at hand to do, I'll decide that later." Sasori mumbled.

Sasori could hear a soft sigh made by Temari behind the phone.

"It's really a great opportunity, but… tell me if you decided, I'll be waiting for your answer." Temari cheerfully said even though she was a little bit sad with Sasori's straight answer.

"Un."

They ended the call after saying their goodbyes. Sasori looked at his phone and noticed the date.

'_4 more days to Sakura's wedding.'_

Sasori placed the phone tiredly on the table, staring into space afterwards.

He just sat there silently and the only thing he could hear was just the ticking sound of the clock.

0o0

Deidara stared at his clay figurine for the tenth time before crushing it and rolled it into a ball. He tried to use the time of quietness to get his inspiration, but it didn't helped much when two ladies were sitting in front of his desk.

"I really don't know yeah." Deidara sighed, glancing at both Ino and Hinata.

Hinata was reading a book on "How to start conversations in an awkward situation." while Ino was playing with a few leftover clay.

"Ummm, sure…" Ino mindlessly said, trying to make the clay into a shape of a star.

Deidara sighed, slouching back to his seat. "If you have nothing else then-"

"Why is Sakura so restless lately?" Ino repeated the question a hundredth times even though Deidara said he didn't know.

"And." Ino finally put the clay on his table and looked at him, "Do you know that Sasuke had actually asked Sakura to quit her job and joined his company instead?" Ino said, which startled Deidara as he try to register the new sentence in his mind was hearing the old sentence that Ino had been repeating for the past two hours.

Deidara narrowed his turquoise eyes, and straightened his posture. "He did- what?" Deidara frowned, looking at Sasori's chair before gritting his teeth.

Hinata observed Deidara before returning to her book.

Ino just returned back to her seat. "I guess you are clueless too. She told us a few days ago and Hinata and I were coming over to see how were things. But unexpectedly, she'd taken the day off." Ino grumbled, noticing that Deidara was glaring at his feet. Ino just picked up the clay and began making into random shapes, trying to ignore Deidara's sound of gritting his teeth.

In between the silence, Hinata glanced at the two and bit her lips. She put down her book and closed it, looking at the cover once again.

"Are you jealous because Sakura and Sasuke were together?" The Hyuuga asked, expecting a "No, duh." for a reply, but instead it was;

"No it wasn't me yeah! It was Sasori, he's in love with her yet he can do nothing at all!" Deidara slammed the table with his fist.

There was an awkward silence; Deidara widened his eye suddenly, realizing that he just let the cat out of the bag. He slowly shifts his seating position, wishing that he could just disappear in a second.

Hinata blinked a few times while Ino's jaw dropped and stood up, allowing the chair she had been sitting on to flip backwards.

"What do you mean that Sasori likes Sakura?" If Ino had not been spending time and money to get her manicure done, she almost just flipped the table and threw the chair out of the window without caring if she had broke her nails.

"I didn't say that, you were just hallucinating yeah." Deidara stood up as well, trying to calculate the chances he can get to run out of the office safely without harm.

As if Ino knew what he was thinking, she sat down and pointed at Deidara's seat, "You sit down as well, don't even think of running away." Ino glared at Deidara. And weirdly, the blonde who always argues just sat down quietly without complains.

"Tell me the beginning and to the end of the story, don't even try skipping any parts." Ino looked at him and knowing what the sign means, he obeyed without argument. Ino was just like Konan, or even ten times worse. She had this frightening aura around her to actually scare the shit out of his pants.

The two girls were listening attentively, without interrupting a single sentence.

After Deidara finished the whole thing, they went back to the silence again. Hinata was about to start something when Ino beaten her to it.

"All these while… Does Sakura know?" Ino asked.

"I don't think so yeah." Deidara said, oblivious to what had happened yesterday between Sasori and Sakura.

"Hinata, you can see the changes in Sakura these few weeks right? She changed, whenever we mentioned Sasuke, she always changed the subject or pretended that we never mentioned him. Years ago, she would always started the subject on him and told us how wonderful he is." Ino frowned while continuing.

"And I don't think Sasuke even love her." Ino said.

"What do you m-mean? Sasuke don't love h-her?" Hinata gasped. Deidara remained still without interrupting, pressing onto his clay once in a while.

"Don't you think so Hinata? He never take the responsibility as a boyfriend and ever since that incident, he changed, even I can see that Hinata."

"Since what?" Deidara asked.

"Since when Sakura had an accident, and she was not able to have kids anymore."

Hinata's eyes softened and looked at her lap, sighing inwardly as she decided to join in the conversation.

"Sakura had an a-accident two years ago, and the doctor says she was not able t-to conceive anymore." Hinata mumbled sadly.

"She once told me before the accident, her dream is to have a happy family with Sasuke and probably one or two kids." Ino then continued after a slight pause. "And I know she still wishes for her dream to come true, even though she was trying to hard to forget that she can't have kids anymore. Her dream… was just shattered in an instant." Ino gritted her teeth before continuing

"And guess whose fault was that?" Ino scratched her nails on the table, giving a screeching sound that Deidara and Hinata doesn't like. "It was actually Sasuke's newly appointed assistant; that bitch Karin."

"What happened?" Deidara asked.

"Sakura was going to meet Sasuke for lunch that day. And when she was walking up the stairs as the lift was suddenly faulty, and Karin just have to appear out of nowhere and pushed Sakura down the stairs when they were walking past eash other." Ino closed her eyes, unable to continue further.

Deidara looked at her, eyes slightly widened.

"And ever s-since Sakura broke the news to him, S-Sasuke seemed to ignore h-her for a while. And actually, Ino…" Hinata looked over at her best friend. "I also noticed how d-different Sasuke tre-treated her since the incident." The Hyuuga said softly.

"That's why, she always went over to the orphanage, trying to forget everything and had fun with the kids there. I've been to the orphanage with her once, and she was really happy. I couldn't even describe how huge her smile was."

Deidara slowly understand, the smile that he was witnessing lately was just fake, Sakura was pretending to be happy when she's not. She's not happy when she's going to get married with Sasuke. She was not at all.

"If only Sakura could have s-someone who truly love her the way she is." Hinata said.

'_Sasori…'_ And that was the first thing that came into Deidara's mind.

'_The ring…'_ He frowned. _'If it was Sasori who proposed to Sakura first, would everything change?'_

Ino shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Hinata, we have to do something." Ino said.

"B-but, we are we supposed to do? Crash the w-wedding?" Hinata said in disbelief.

"The idea seems fine." Ino said.

Deidara looked at her, "Are you freaking serious?"

"Not exactly crashed the wedding though. Don't get me wrong." Ino wagged her finger. "My uncle is actually a police officer who always interrogates criminals, forcing them to say the truth. And I've been to the station once in a while so I might have picked up a trick or two."

"Your point yeah?"

"I'm going to try and make her admit that she doesn't love Sasuke anymore… but if she is really strong-willed, perhaps I could try making her admitting that she like Sasori instead."

"Sasori? What if s-she doesn't?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"Hinata, don't worry." Ino gave a pat on her friend's shoulder and a wink to Deidara. "On the whole story that Deidara had been telling, I truthfully think that Sakura had also fallen in love with Sasori."

0o0

They hadn't met for a couple of days, as if they really had deleted the other person from their mind.

Sasori didn't went for a work a few days without telling anyone what was wrong with him, while Sakura just came over to picked up a few things before returning back home, saying that she'll do her work at home instead.

The office turned so cold and silent. Why must things happen to this? Deidara slowly turned and looked out of the window, observing Sakura holding to a few things while waving for a cab.

'_They are not happy, none of them were. But what on earth happened? I just got a feeling that something had happened yet I don't know what it is.'_ Deidara thought, returning to the clay in his hand.

"I'm not going to sit down here and do nothing yeah" Deidara stood up and walked out of the door, ignoring the fact when he just left his work completely undone.

0o0

Sakura opened the door and pulled the bulky luggage in.

"I'm so tired riding on the plane for hours and hours, I need a nice hot bath." Sakura's mother yawned, holding onto her limited edition bag that she had bought when she was overseas.

"Mum, Dad, just sit at the couch first." Sakura smiled, gesturing them at the sofa. "I'll put the things in your room and prepare a nice hot bath." The young Haruno said, taking the things to the room.

Her Mum and Dad did what they were told as they looked around the house. "Look at that, our pinky just bought a new television set."

"Mum, stop calling me that." Sakura yelled in the room.

The older male Haruno stood up and looked around the house, inspecting the cleanliness and tidiness around the house, not a speck of dirt could be seen. He smiled, before observing one of the photo frames that was slightly out of the way on the table.

He reached over to the frame and stared at it for a while before frowning. He then hand his wife the photo frame.

"Look at Sakura, she's turning rather disobedient when we are not around."

Sakura's mum shook her head and took the frame, scanning the photo before smiling.

"What's wrong? She's just having a small party with two male friends. Nothing disobedient about that." She returned to looking at the photo again, noticing how happy Sakura was in the photo.

"She's going to get married with the Uchiha's; one of the very huge and important company that are working with us. She shouldn't be with these guys." He muttered, sitting back down and looking over the photos.

"Look at this. This one is much better." Her Dad took the graduation photo that Sakura had taken with her old gang. Ino, Hinata, Sasuke, Naruto, Neji and a few others people that Sakura still had not forgotten.

"She should put more of these decent photos in the living room instead." He turned to looked at his wife, who was still looking down at the picture, frowning.

"Are you listening to what I said a few moments ago?" He asked, placing the photo back to where it was.

"This person, he looks very familiar." She pointed at Sasori, who was trying hard to smile in the photo.

The other Haruno took the picture and looked at the person that she was previously pointing at. "Who is he? Never seen him." He looked at his wife. "You are getting old, we didn't met such person before."

"But he seems so familiar, his red hair and his beige-colored eyes." She tried hard to remember but Sakura immediately broke her lines of thought.

"Mum, the bath is ready. And Dad, all the books that you wanted to read when you got of the plane were placed nicely on the table." Sakura shouted in the room.

Both of them stood up immediately and walked to the room and wanting to get their things done. Sakura's mother noticed that the frame that was still in her hand as she swiftly put it down on the table, not even caring if it's in lined with the others.

0o0

Deidara leaned against the chair glancing at the boring television once in a while. "The wedding is in a few days time yeah." Deidara mentioned.

"Yeah, so?" Sasori muttered, putting some chips in his mouth.

"You are going to grow fat if you continue like this." Deidara said, slightly changing the subject. "Remember that time when you had to run like twenty rounds around the school when you were overweight?" Deidara slightly laughed, but his laughter soon died down.

"But… are you actually coming?" Deidara asked again, wanting to make sure. Sasori had been ignoring him for the past five minutes when he was talking.

Sasori just kept silent.

The blonde went around the chair and sit on the sofa beside Sasori. "Sasori, the wedding is-"

"You know, we really have to stop talking about this." Sasori shifted his position and looked at Deidara who was staring at him with his two curious aqua blue eyes.

Deidara sighed, turning to the other side and looked at the television instead while Sasori was enjoying the silence in the room.

In the midst of all this, something remarkably shiny caught the blonde's attention. The ring that was supposing to be thrown out of the window a few weeks ago was still there, on the table. But it seemed that Sasori did not noticed or cared about it anymore.

'_The ring! Yes! The ring!' _An idea suddenly struck his mind, but how was he supposed to get it? After thinking for a few seconds, Deidara straightened his posture.

"Hey Sasori, I'm a little thirsty." Deidara said, giving a few coughs.

"Un." He stood up and walked to the kitchen, throwing the leftover chips on the table.

Deidara quickly bent forward and grabbed the ring, slipping it into his pocket and pretended nothing happened as he continued watching the television.

"Here." Sasori handed the drink to him, the other hand holding to the new bag of chips that Sasori had taken when he went to the kitchen, and totally ignoring the fact that there were still some leftovers in the previous bag.

"Thanks yeah." He said, gulping the drink in a few gulps.

'_Sasori, don't blame me for this yeah.'_ Deidara thought, placing the empty glass on the table while glancing between him and the television.

'_If you are not going to do this right, then let the pro do it for you yeah.'_

0o0

Sakura looked over her shoulder, and walked out of the kitchen, running her hair through her finger while wondering who was the visitor that was ringing the bell.

She opened the door and to her surprise, it was Ino and Hinata, standing there and waving at her.

"Is your Dad and Mum in? We've bought something for them." Ino said, raising a bottle of champagne.

Sakura smiled and welcomed them in. "They are not in, they've went over to visit some of their friends in town." Sakura took the bottle and headed to the kitchen, putting down the glass bottle and took two glass of water for them.

"Thanks." Hinata and Ino both said in unison, taking the drink from Sakura. After taking a few sip, they placed it on the table just beside them.

"Are you feeling unwell lately? We went over to your workplace and you weren't there." Ino began to start a light conversation.

"Flu." Sakura lied, still putting a fake smile on her face.

"Did you s-see a doctor?" Hinata asked in concern, putting her hand on Sakura's shoulder as comfort.

But before Sakura could reply, Ino gave a fake smile and cut in. "Or are you running away from the fact that you don't love Sasuke anymore?" Ino asked, deciding to go straight to the subject instead of beating around the bush.

"Ino, what are you talking about? I love Sasuke." Sakura frowned.

Having a second thought about the decision, Hinata bit her lips and decided to cut in. "Ino, I t-think w-we should-"

"Hinata! We had decided on this already and I'm not going to back out." Ino turned away from Hinata and glared at Sakura. "You know what I'm talking about.

"Stop forcing me Ino! I don't know what the hell you are talking about. I always love Sasuke!" Sakura suddenly screamed out all the frustration she had and accidentally knocked the ceramic cup on the table and shattering the glass. She clicked her tongue and bent over and carelessly picked up the shattered glasses, accidentally cutting her finger.

She took in a deep breath and continued picking up the piece, ignoring the pain.

"Sakura, your hand is b-bleeding!" Hinata bent forward to inspect Sakura's hand, but she shrugged it off and stood up, throwing the pieces that she had been picking up back on the floor angrily.

"I'm fine Hinata, just go away!" Sakura yelled at her.

Hinata was taken by surprise. She immediately stood up and looked away while playing with her clothes.

"I-I a-am s-so s-so-sor-sorry." Hinata said softly, she was in verge of tears and was about to cry any moment.

"Sakura, you don't have to treat Hinata like that!" Ino shouted.

Sakura's eyes immediately softened, realizing that she had just thrown tantrum at her best friend when she was just trying to care about her. She shook her head, trying to get rid of all the thoughts she had out of her mind and approached Hinata as she took her arm with the other hand that was not cut by the broken pieces. "I'm sorry Hinata, I didn't meant it, I was just…" Sakura gave an inward sigh and looked down. "I'm really sorry."

Hinata smiled and took Sakura's injured hand. "Your hand is hu-hurt." Hinata took out a packet of tissue from her bag and helped Sakura to wipe her bloodstained hand. The Hyuuga then took out a cute purple plaster and pasted it on her wound. "There, all done." Hinata smiled, looking at Sakura.

Sakura's mouth slightly quivered as she looked down at her hand before putting both hands on her face.

"I'm sorry…"

Ino bit her lips, refusing to end the whole argument so easily. "Sakura! Listen to me, you are in a delusion, Sasuke- he was with that bitc…" Ino closed her eyes, deciding to pick her words carefully.

"He changed, everyone changed, love changes, relationship changes, you have to stop lying to yourself. You changed as well, you don't love him anymore!"

"No, nothing had change. I still love Sasuke, and the wedding is going on." Sakura cried out.

'_She just kept refusing to admit that she doesn't love Sasuke anymore.'_ Ino bit her lips, deciding to go on to plan B. _'Then I shall just try the second method.'_

"Sakura stop it! What about Sasori?" Ino said.

Hinata blinked, realizing what Ino was trying to do.

"What d-do you mean? What does this relate to Sasori?" Sakura blurted out.

Ino sighed, "I shall just skipped the part when you were hiding so much things from us." The blonde said before continuing. "Deidara had told us everything. Sakura, if you actually didn't know, Sasori loves you!" Ino blurted out.

_"I'm not joking Sakura, I love you."_

'_Of course, not even Deidara knew that Sasori had confessed to me last evening. And Deidara didn't knew almost the whole story, if Ino actually knew that Sasuke was out with Karin back then, she'll rip her to shreds this time.' _Sakura looked away, and tried hard to keep her expression as calm as possible.

"R-really?" That's all Sakura could say.

"What do you mean by just _'Really?' _He likes you more than Sasuke does!"

Hinata glanced at both of them, but she could not find a chance to interrupt the conversation. She was lost in between the fight.

"No! I-I… I don't get it Ino, why is everyone pressuring me about the relationship I had with Sasuke? Wasn't it great?" Sakura waved her arms around.

"Sakura, don't lie to yourself anymore. Admit it, do you feel great?" Ino challenged her back. Sakura widened her eyes, and indeed, she was asking exactly the same question that Ino had directed to her.

She does not. She does not feel great at all.

"And tell yourself, do you feel happy when you are with Sasuke?"

She does not. She does not feel happy at all.

"And most importantly, tell yourself…" Ino paused before continuing.

"Do you like Sasori, even when it was just one moment, just one second?" Ino said.

Sakura's heart almost stopped when she heard the sentence.

_"If there was a chance for me to turn back the time…" _

_"I would rather be with Sasori than to be with you."_

It was true, right at the point, she was really saying what she had been feeling all the time.

She would really turn back the time if she could.

And before the wedding that could have locked her fate, she still had the chance to choose before she could regret forever.

Sakura was really harsh on Sasori last night, and it hurts her deeply inside. It was as if a huge knife just pierces through her heart a million of times. But when she witnessed Sasuke and Karin together, she was just breaking down and crying, nothing else.

But after saying all those cruel words and ran out, crying on her own like she had never cried before. Her heart was so in pain, real pain, and she could not breathe for once. It hurts her when she just shouted those words to him, and it really tears her apart when she saw the pair of dejected brown eyes staring back at her when she shouted all those words at him.

She does not want to say all those heartless things at first, but when she felt the cold ring touches the skin around her neck, she just could not betrayed Sasuke and even go as far to admitting that she love Sasori too.

But this time, she was not going to stop.

"Ino… Hinata…" Sakura started sobbing, slowly walking towards the two and hugged them. Hinata and Ino stretched their arms and welcomed Sakura to cry on their shoulder.

"Sakura, you have t-to believe in us, we are your best friends, and we will always be there for you no matter what." Hinata patted Sakura's back.

Ino smiled, resting her chin on Sakura's stiff shoulder. "Just say it Sakura, I promise on my life that I would not tell a single soul about it.

Sakura closed her eyes, yet tears still continued rolling down her cheeks.

"I-I…" She continued sobbing, yet she was determined to finish the sentence that she wanted to say so much.

"I really really love S-Sasori too…"

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

Yay, finally finished the chapter. Had the worst writer's block of all time at the last part… I think there's 2 or 3 chapters left, for your information.

I'm really amazed that there are still people out there reading this crap even with all the depressing chapters previously. I'm really really touched like seriously (LOVES~)

-pocky


	19. Pitter Patter Splash Splash

[ May I ]

_When the world is closing in- and you can't breathe,_

Sakura sat on the sofa for the past two hours alone after Ino and Hinata had left her house.

She had finally decided what to.

She is going to call off the wedding.

Sakura continued hugging her legs to her chest, holding on her phone in one hand while rocking her body back and forth like an innocent baby.

"Sasori…" She muttered, her voice was still hoarse from the crying, but she still speaks his name over an over again, like a sort of encouragement to herself.

Of course, she has to break the news to her parents, Deidara, Sasuke, his parents and Itachi.

How is she supposed to do that?

"Sasori…"

On the cue, the doorknob turned and the door swing open, revealing the two Haruno couple entering the house. Sakura wanted to smile and greet them, but her smile was immediately wiped off when her parents were talking busily on their phone, too busy to even look at her to give her a smile or a greeting.

"I thought the contract was sealed, how can they just made another business deal with another company?" Sakura's father was holding onto his phone, his brows were furrowed and his tone was hinted with anger.

"Of course I missed everyone, I'll fly back immediately after Sakura's wedding. Yes, my precious daughter is going to get married in a few days… with one of the Uchiha's heir. Not the older one, he is engaged, it's the younger son." On the other hand, Sakura's mum was in a happier mood though. But it was because she was proud of her darling daughter who would be getting married with an amazing millionaire family who owns one of the biggest companies in the world.

And how is she supposed to break the news to either one of them?

The older female glanced at Sakura and smiled, before returning to her call. "I'll call you later." She immediately cut the call and approached to her daughter, sitting beside her on the sofa. "We're back dear."

Sakura smiled and put down her phone on the table. She fidget with her clothes while her mum switched on the television, and started switching channels till she found the one she liked.

Her father clicked his tongue angrily, grabbing a chair beside the dining table and slumped onto it, continue talking into his phone. "I don't care, as long as you failed to get the matter done by the time I come back, you're _fired_."

Sakura flinched when he slammed his phone on the glass table. He began mumbling a few incoherent words while Sakura's mum continued changing channel as if she does not care.

Sakura looked up, staring at her father who had started reading his newspaper. She bit her lips and stood up, surprising her mum.

"What is it Sakura? Is there something wrong?"

_"Sakura…" Ino broke the hug, taking Sakura's shoulder as the blonde looked into Sakura's green emerald eyes. Hinata stepped back, giving a small smile._

_"Take this chance. There's just a few more days left before your wedding. You have to try to call it off before it's too late." Ino said._

_"Follow your h-heart. We'll always be h-here for you. Why don't you start with y-your parents first?" Hinata added behind Ino._

_"But… how?" Sakura mumbled softly._

_"Just tell them straight, and then wait for their reaction and answer their questions they probably would be pouring out. Things will turn our right if you do it correctly." Ino winked_

"What are you talking about? How can you call off it as whenever you like?"

Sakura winced at the volume. She looked away and stared at her feet.

"Is there some reasons why you wanted to call off the wedding? Did Sasuke did something wrong? What happened?"

"Sakura, this is not a game. You can't start the game as whenever you like and quit it if you feel like it. Don't be ridiculous, Sakura."

"Dad… I-"

What is she going to say now? She can't tell them that she likes-

"Sakura, don't be a stubborn kid. You can't just say you want a wedding and then call it off a few days before it. The damn wedding is going on." He yelled, throwing the newspaper roughly beside his phone.

"You can' force me in doing something that I refused to do! How can you exchange your daughter's future with just a contract between the Uchiha's? It's not as if I did not marry him, your business would be ruined!"

Who would be stupid enough not to guess that every businessman in the world were throwing away their daughter's future at the two Uchiha's for the sake of working with Sasuke's father.

"It will, and just do what I say! You and Sasuke had been together for freaking 4 years, and I don't see why you disagreed to the wedd-"

"It's because I don't want to end up like you two!"

Both of her parents stiffened, they looked at her curiously, trying to understand every single word she had said. "What do you mean dear? What do you mean by not wanting to end up like your father and I?" Her mother looked at Sakura as she frowned.

Sakura tried to laugh, but failed terribly as she hiccupped in between. "You two had already divorced, why force yourself, pretending to be a happy and loving couple in front of everyone? In front of me?"

The room fell into a deathly silence, no one spoke, and the television had been switched off. They needed the peace to calm themselves down.

"When did you know about it?" Her dad spoke, breaking the silence.

Sakura answered, glaring at her feet before looking into her father's eyes.

"I thought I was the happiest kid on earth, I had a cool pink bike, a cute doll house, a computer and all sorts of thing that you are willing to buy for me. I thought I have the all the greatest thing in the world, but then I realize, these entire birthday bash I had, I was never entirely happy." Sakura answered, glaring at her feet before looking into her father's eyes.

"Each birthday Dad… I never got to spend a single party with you. Until today, I never did." Sakura could felt the hot wet tears flowing down her cheeks, but she ignored it. Today, right at the moment, she's going to shout out everything that she had been keeping to herself for the past decade of her life

"On my birthday, my freaking 11th birthday…" She took a deep breath and continued. "I just witnessed you and another woman having sex before my birthday party starts."

Her father blinked in surprise; the secret between his wife and himself had been keeping from Sakura was actually known right from the start.

"You lied." Sakura laughed again, holding the side of her stomach. "You said you were busy working in your office, that's why you could not spent some time with your daughter on her birthday."

"I don't know how many times I've heard the same reason before but…" Sakura stopped her fake laugh, finding what Sasuke and her father's reason for not being able to spend time with her was mostly the _same_. She bit her lips in frustration and blinked away her tears.

"Mum must have knew that too… Because later that night, after celebrating my birthday with all those laughter's and smile, she was crying in her room and on the bed; the bed which you had _fuck _with another slut."

Her Dad froze on the spot, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"And Mum…" Sakura pointed at her mother who was sitting at the sofa, about to cry any moment. "Mum was suffering all these years because of you! A week later, you wanted to divorce Mum. I've overheard everything… You said you don't love her, you said all those mean words to her, and she's crying, crying and begging you not to abandon this family…" Sakura screamed, hot wet tears continue rolling down her cheeks while her father was still speechless, no words left for him to argue.

"Not only that… You…you even cruelly said that the only reason you married her. was just because you wanted to take over my grandparent's company!"

Sakura swore she could hear her father gasped. For the first time in her life, she had seen her Dad's unbelievable shocked face. She's not going to hold back. Even if she had to respect her father, the first thing he should do was to respect her Mum first.

"Now you two are pretending to be a loving couple; I don't mind at all. Because I know, one of the reason you two had done this was because you don't want to hurt my feelings… Right? But I'm not going to repeat the process, I don't want to suffer the same fate as Mum." Sakura looked at both of her parents, clearing her throat to speak more.

"I'm not going to lie now. Yes, I did fell in love with another person other than Sasuke. Someone who cares and gives me the protection I wanted more than anyone could give me. But he's not the third-party, he does not even know that I like him." Sakura wiped her tears with the back of her hands before she firmly looked at her Dad.

"But if you're talking about the third-party…" Sakura took in a deep breath and stormed towards the door.

"You probably have to ask Uchiha Sasuke yourself."

With that, she flung opened the front door and shut it loudly behind her.

0o0

"Sakura, calm down. Where are you now?" Ino said through the phone.

Sakura sniffed, looking around the empty street. "I don't know, I think it was somewhere near the restaurant we had visited on Hinata's birthday." Sakura sat on the nearby bench; her legs are sore from all the walking she had when she ran away from home.

"Sakura, stay where you are. Hinata and I are coming straight over." Ino assured her.

"Th-Thanks…"

Sakura clutched onto her phone and stared at her feet, her mind was hazy and her lips were dry. She could not think clearly and her head was in a mess.

Grey clouds hung over the sky as a soft thunder could be heard from a distance. Sakura looked up, giving a sigh. She could not help but gave a laugh. Even God is playing with her, raining right at the moment when she's lost and feeling so frustrated in the inside.

"_Pitter, Patter."_

At first, it was just a few drops of rain and a cool breeze, then slowly, the rain become heavier and the wind become stronger, messing her hair. The cold water hits her skin and soaking her pink T-shirt and jeans. She does not feel like moving, she was very tired to move. And maybe the rain could clear her thoughts much easier than eating Ramen at Naruto's restaurant. It's still worth a try…

'_Sasori Sasori Sasori Sasori…'_

The only thing she could do was to repeat his name over and over in her head, nothing else.

"_Splash, Splash."_

Sakura could hear footsteps running towards her in a hurry. Probably it was Ino and Hinata who would nag her for sitting under the rain, or maybe it was some stranger running down the empty street to get some shelter nearby.

"_Splash, Pitter Patter, Splash."_

The footstep stopped, not only that, the rain seemed to stop as an unknown shadow suddenly covered her entirely. She looked up, but to her surprise, it was still raining, but she could not feel any cold water hitting her face anymore. She raised her head, and to the shock of her life, there he was standing right in front of her with an umbrella, the redhead that she had not been seeing for a few days.

"Sa-Sasori…"

"What are you doing here? You'll get sick." Sasori frowned. Even though his face was expressionless, his tone was filled with worry and care for her.

She immediately stood up, ignoring the fact that her legs were numb and sore. "I was a little lost here, I've called Ino and she's picking me up. Speaking of coincidence… What are you doing here too?"

"Dinner." He said, looking down. Sakura wanted to smile, forgetting what had happened previously between them and pinch Sasori's adorable cheek. He looked completely innocent with a light red umbrella in his hand

"How have you been?" Sasori spoke, breaking Sakura's thought. They were still standing closely with each other under the small umbrella, but Sakura felt very comfortable with that, she could feel Sasori's warm breathe against her cold and wet skin, and it gave her a tingling sensation that she never felt when she was with Sasuke before.

"Pretty fine. How about you?" Sakura gave a small smile.

"Very good."

The heavy rain continues, perfectly suiting their mood. They were both obviously lying. They were not fine; they were not at least good. They felt as moody and horrible like the rain.

"Sasori… I'm sorry about that day." Sakura shook her head, closing her eyes tightly. Sasori blinked, he never expect Sakura to mention about that day when he confessed, he thought she would be trying as hard as possible to avoid talking about that subject.

"It-It's alright." Sasori stuttered, still a bit surprised, but he easily hid it in a matter of time.

"No, you don't get it Sasori, I'm going to call of the wedding." Sakura showed her bright green eyes at Sasori, showing how determined she was.

Sasori stared at her; his eyes widened a few inches. "What are you talking about?" He slightly shook his umbrella, still could not believe his ears.

"I'm serious Sasori. And do you want to know why?" Sakura said, still looking at Sasori without even hesitating. "Because I'm in love with you too."

"_Pitter, Patter."_

Sasori does not find it amusing. Either someone had created a clone of Sakura and tricked him like what he had seen in some ninja's movie, or either he had hearing problem.

"Stop this Sakura, you don't have to explain yourself to me because you sympathize me. I understand. The wedding is in a few days, you can't do that."

"I'm not explaining myself because I pitied you! I love you because I can't stop thinking about you, I can't forgive myself for saying those things to you before- because I don't even mean it! I lied to myself, telling myself that I love Sasuke instead of you. I've mistaken, right at the start… I don't love Sasuke anymore!" Sakura shouted, despite the distance between both of them, Sasori did not flinch at the loud volume. He just looked at Sakura, still with the same expression.

"Sakura. Tell me. You said you love me. What makes you think you love me-"

"Like what I said before, because I-" Sakura was about to explain but Sasori ignored her, continuing what he wanted to say.

"-When you don't understand all these while I've been always hinting that I liked you. But you were never able to sense it. Until the day when I had confessed to you earlier… If, it was Deidara who confessed, or perhaps Hidan or any guy you knew. Would you be standing in the rain with him as well? Telling him that you are sorry and you don't mean what you said before because you always love him all these while?"

Sakura did not have the time to react, before she could try to come up with anything, Sasori immediately cut in.

"Sakura, I can understand if you have no more special feelings for Sasuke anymore. But don't lie to yourself and try to explain to me that you love me. You don't. I may be your good friend, a friend than you rely on, like a good brother perhaps. But Sakura, you don't love me. I don't want you to regret in the future. Like what you said. We are _impossible_. It's better to be friends than being in an awkward situation when we meet again."

"You don't get it Saso-"

"Just think that I've never said all those words before, I've never confessed to you before. Treat it as a mistake I made, like it was just a hidden camera prank."

"But Sasori I really-"

Sasori grabbed Sakura's hand and pushed the umbrella into her hand, stepping back. "I wish you and Sasuke well." Sasori said, giving his most sincere smile, he turned and left, walking in the huge heavy downpour by himself.

"Sasori!" She clutched hard onto the umbrella till her knuckles turned white. She wanted to run after Sasori and hugged him, but she does not have the courage to do so. She had hurt him so much.

"You don't get it Sasori… I really love you…" Sakura cried out in the rain, but the sound of the heavy rain splattering on the concrete ground masked Sakura's words. Her voice turned hoarse as her legs goes numb, allowing herself to fall back and slumped back onto the bench.

It was impossible for him to hear those words, and probably the rest of his life as well.

0o0

"Sasori-"

Sasori pushed Deidara aside and he rolled his luggage out of his room. Deidara gave an annoyed sigh and followed him out. "Just stay for a few hours… you can catch the next flight tomorrow… what's the hurry yeah?" Deidara complained.

Sasori opened his front door while Deidara quickly escaped out of his house before the redhead really traps him inside. Sasori locked his door and stuffed the house key in his pocket, pulling the luggage behind him and approached to the lift that was already opened for them

"At least you should wish Sakura before going off…" Deidara finally used his last resort.

"Deidara. If you are trying to tell me to crash their wedding or do whatever to ruin their wedding plans _again_, trust me, I'm going to knock all your teeth out."

Deidara looked at Sasori's eyes as he finally nodded in silent, the redhead was really serious about knocking all his teeth out. And Deidara love his teeth, he has the cleanest and nicest set of teeth and he would do anything to protect them.

They walked out of the building and to the road. Sasori glanced to his left and right, trying to find any cabs in sight before turning and face Deidara who was still following him.

"You should go. I don't want you to go emotional all over and do stupid stuffs." Sasori glanced wearily at Deidara.

"Hey… do I look like some kid who plays with teddy bears and sings ABC yeah?"

"Yes." Sasori finally managed to flag a cab as the car stopped by Sasori's side along the pavement. Deidara watched at his best friend brought his luggage and placed it in the car boots before entering the taxi.

"Sasori… UMMMMMMM, take care." Deidara gave a slight wave.

Sasori frowned, while raising an eyebrow at the same time. "It's not like the first time I'm going to some other countries…"

Deidara sighed. "You don't believe in miracles do you? If you stay and go to the wedd-"

"I'm going off now." With that, Sasori instructed the driver where his destination was as they immediately sped off. Deidara watched the car drove down the road as it disappeared when it turned into another corner.

Deidara put both of his hands into his coat's pocket, unknowing to Sasori. The ring was still in that pocket all along as he started to play with it. He took out the other hand as he looked at his watch.

"Better hurry now yeah…" He said out loud, running back to find his car at one of the parking lots near Sasori's house.

He has an important mission to do.

0o0

"Mum…"

Sakura's mum smiled, taking her hand and placed it on her own. "Sakura, your Dad is outside. Do you want to see him?"

Sakura glanced at the huge mirror in front of her. Today is her wedding day, the most important day of any woman's life. She's wearing beautiful white and simple gown and the necklace given by her Mum.

"I don't know…" Sakura mumbled quietly, combing her hair with her fingers.

After Ino and Hinata countless comforting and encouragement, Sakura finally calm down and return back to her house on that rainy day. Her parents were waiting silently and patiently for their daughter to return home. They've called millions of time but Sakura did not answer a single one.

Both father and daughter did not spoke for the entire time, but deep down, Sakura knew he still cared for her even when he was really very busy at work.

She never heard any news about Sasori either, not once, never. She wanted to call him but she does not have the courage to do so even if she really wanted to. She wanted to talk to him face to face, but no matter how much courage she had to pick up her phone to dial his number, she would always shut the phone before the call could go through.

There was a knock at the door. The two Haruno looked up, to find the two bridesmaid; Ino and Hinata, returning back to the room.

"We can take over now. The other guests are expecting you Mrs. Haruno." Ino politely said. Sakura's mum gave a soft peck on her daughter's cheek before approaching the door, "Thanks Ino and Hinata. Take good care of her." Both of Sakura's best friends nodded, understanding the task that was given to them.

Ino and Hinata walked towards Sakura, who was playing nervously with the laces at the end of her gown.

"Sakura… we-" Ino

"I'm fine." Sakura gave a reassuring smile.

"We are sorry Sakura. We to-told you to call off the wedding re-recklessly without knowing what the con-consequence might be. We did not know you would h-have a fight with your Dad."

"I'm fine. Don't worry Hinata." Sakura looked at the Hyuuga heir. "It does not make any difference since we rarely talked to each other as well." Sakura added.

"But the problem is… What about Sasuke? Sasori? Are you really going to marry Sasuke? Even though…"

"I can live through it."

"Sakura… Are you s-sure about this?" Hinata spoke.

Ino and Sakura turned their head and face the Hyuuga heir. "Sakura, aren't y-you in love with Sasori?" Hinata spoke.

Ino nudged Hinata, giving a Don't-mention-him-you-idiot face. That was when there was another knock coming from the door and the door knob turned as a blond popped his head through the small gap and glanced around the room, to find the three girls looking at him.

Deidara smiled and entered walking to the threesome.

"Deidara, you came…" Sakura smiled.

"How can I miss your wedding yeah?" Deidara said before looking at Ino and Hinata.

"Can I talk with Sakura for a while?"

"You can talk here." Ino gave a fake smile to Deidara.

Knowing that saying anything else would not change anything, Deidara sighed, putting his hand into his pocket, he approached closer to Sakura and stood behind her in front of the mirror. Unknowingly, he gave a big grin.

"Sakura, you look beautiful today…" Deidara gazed at the mirror.

"Thank you Deidara…" Sakura said

"Sakura is always beautiful, right Hinata?"

"Yes… Sakura is always v-very beautiful." Hinata added.

Deidara's smile soon fades away as he finally took the silver band out from his pocket. He played with it between his fingers before handing it to Sakura.

"This… is?" Sakura looked up at Deidara, who was showing the ring right in front of Sakura. Ino and Hinata glanced at the ring closely before looking at Deidara, wondering if this was the exact ring that Deidara had mentioned when he told them Sasori had bought and wanted to give it to Sakura.

Deidara glanced at Ino and Hinata, giving a sigh. "This is the ring that Sasori bought a while ago, he… I guess, he wanted to give you to you personally but…"

Sakura stared at it one again, her mouth slightly open, a few image flashes across her mind as she suddenly remembered why the ring he was holding so familiar.

It was the ring that she had once mentioned to Sasori before.

_"Whoa… this is so beautiful…" Sakura pointed at one of the rings behind the glass window._

"He bought it… he really bought it…" Sakura widened her eyes, staring at the silver band as he took it from Deidara's hand...

The ring she was holding onto was defiantly more expensive and valuable than what Sasuke had bought for her. Nothing can replace how much love Sasori had poured into this ring. It was for her, it was priceless, it was meant to be hers at first… But…

Sakura placed the silver band on the table as she stared at her reflection. "He isn't coming did he? Did he asked you to give this ring to me, to hint me in trying to give him another chance?" Sakura muttered.

"That's not true yeah… He did not know I took it. I showed it to you because I want you to think twice about it. I'm not telling you because I'm your boss or Sasori's friend. I'm telling you because I don't want you to regret forever. I want you to be happy, not putting a fake smile wherever you go…"

"That's not the Sakura I know… The real Sakura is a happy girl who tends to laugh a lot. Even when you put all these beautiful jewelries, gown or make-up, it can't compare to your smile. Only your smile yeah."

Sakura stared at herself in the mirror, asking herself.

'_When was the last time I really smiled so happily?'_

"Where is he anyway? Did he come with you?" Ino asked.

"He's on his way to the airport now, catching a flight to Sunagakure yeah." Deidara said.

"…What-" Hinata gasped.

"What the hell do you mean? How can he ditched Sakura and left her in the lurch?" Ino showed Deidara her fist. "If only I can give him a punch right this instant…" Ino muttered dangerously.

"He left…" Sakura muttered

The three of them looked at Sakura surprisingly.

"What can I do?" Sakura gave a small laugh. "I can't stop him from going anywhere. If he wants to go, he should. It probably would be better than meeting each other again and be in an awkward situation." Sakura said. Her laughter soon died down.

"Sakura…" Hinata murmured.

"I'm fine…" Sakura said, giving a fake smile. "Perhaps… when time passes, I can love Sasuke the way I do before." She said.

'_It's impossible… I can never love Sasuke like the way I do before…'_

The door suddenly opened, and there was actually Sasuke's mum. The four of them tensed as they both watched the female Uchiha smiling at them. The only word the four of them had in mind was just _'Creepy…'_

"It's going to start now. Your dad is waiting." She said.

Sakura stood up while Ino and Hinata helped Sakura out of the door. Ino gestured Deidara out as well. Deidara bit his lips, looking at the ring on the table.

'_It's all I can do yeah…'_

0o0

Sakura looked up, everyone was already on their seat, looking at her. She silently gulped as she turned to her Dad, who was already waiting for her. He only gave a smile. Hinata handed her the small bouquet of flowers as Sakura thanked her. The two best friends immediately scurried to their seats as Sakura stepped forward and stood beside her father, ready to begin the wedding ceremony.

"I'm ready, are you?" He only said.

Sakura smiled. "I'm ready when you are…"

Slowly and steadily, Sakura and her father began walking down the red carpet as the piano man began playing the wedding song. Everyone began clapping as a few girls watched her enviously.

Today is her day… and she's going to be hand her over to the Uchiha family.

Everyone would be calling her, Mrs. Uchiha Sakura…

Having this thought really gives Sakura the chill.

Sakura glanced at each side of the church. Her friends were already there; Ino, Hinata, Deidara and the rest. All of them gave a slight wave and thumbs up. All she could do was to smile once again as she continues to focus walking down the red carpet with her high heels.

Sasuke turned around as he watched his bride walking closer and closer to the front. Sakura tried very hard to smile, but she could not. She could not picture herself marrying to Sasuke anymore. Even though it was her lifelong dream, she felt it was turning into a nightmare.

Sakura took another step, and she blinked. She was already at the front. Her father let go of her arm and handed it to Sasuke, who was slightly reluctant to take it. Without further ado, he just walked and stood beside Sakura's mum, who was in verge of crying.

The priest opened his book and looked at everyone, then at the groom and the bride before nodding his head and began the ceremony. Sasuke did not bother to look at Sakura as he stood lifelessly beside Sakura, who was also just staring into space.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sign of God—and in the face of this company - To join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony, which is commended to be honorable among all men; and therefore - is not by any – to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly – but reverently, discreetly, advisedly and solemnly..."

Sakura slightly glanced at Sasuke's side, and there was Itachi and his parents, standing at each other's side looking at both of them. Itachi caught Sakura's eyes as he gave a small smile to her. Sakura blinked, smiling back before turning and facing the front.

"Into this holy estate these two persons present now come to be joined. If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together – let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

Slowly, she looked up, gazing at her husband-to-be.

His eyes were emotionless and cold. No trace of happiness either. If he does not felt happy, why on earth did he propose to her? She still does not get it. Itachi and Sasuke were born from the same exact parents, yet why do their personality and characteristics were so different from each other?

Sasuke seemed to have caught her looking at him as he glanced down at Sakura, who immediately looked away when he looked right into her eyes. His eyes were scary like he was about to kill any one in this instant. How is she supposed to face Sasuke every single day under the same roof? Perhaps they might be even be sleeping in different rooms.

Who knows?

Giving a silent sigh, she slowly turned to her other side.

There were her ageing parents, who were standing closely side-by-side to each other. Her father was staring in space and does not seem to be listening, while on the other hand, her mother was listening attentively to the priest. When Sakura had turned, her mother seemed to have caught her looking as well and she immediately smiled at her daughter. Sakura could only give a faint smile back before looking at the priest once again.

"Marriage is the union of husband and wife in heart, body and mind. It is intended for their mutual joy – and for the help and comfort given on another in prosperity and adversity. But more importantly – it is a means through which a stable and loving environment may be attained."

'_Mutual Joy, comfort… What are these? Does that happened between Sasuke and I?'_

'_Should… I change my destiny? And be with the one I truly and dearly love? Someone who can give me all the security and love I needed?'_

'_Or shall I be trapped in this fixed fate, and ended up just like my mum, in an unhappy marriage with no one she could turn to?'_

_"If there was a chance for me to turn back the time…"_

_"I would rather be with Sasori than to be with you." _

**_Haruno Sakura, take this chance and pursue your love!_**

_"I'm not joking Sakura, I love you."_

**_Because he loves you too!_**

_"Tell me who is it! Maybe I can help you!" Sakura said excitedly, waiting for Sasori to answer her question._

_"You…would?" Sasori looked at her surprisingly, yet she still doesn't know she was the one that he was referring to all along._

_"Yup! I'm sure the person would be the most fortunate girl in her life." Sakura grinned._

**_Be that fortunate girl, Haruno Sakura! You shall be that girl who would be spending the rest of her life with the one she truly love all along!_**

"Through marriage, Sasuke and Sakura make a commitment together to face their disappointments – embrace their dreams – realize their hopes – and accept each other's failures."

Sakura notice a few movements behind her. She gave a sidelong glance at Ino, who was fidgeting annoyingly while Hinata was playing with her fingers anxiously. But Deidara patiently stood there and his face remained impassive. He just gave a nod at Sakura and mouthing the three words that probably changed Sakura's decision.

_"Follow-Your-Heart."_

"We are here today – before God – because marriage is one of His most sacred wishes – to witness the joining in marriage of Uchiha Sasuke and Haru-"

Sakura dropped the bouquet that was in her hand; she turned sharply and let go of Sasuke's arm. The Uchiha was caught by surprise as he watched Sakura running down the red carpet.

Everyone gasped as they looked at each other with wide eyes.

"What is she doing?"

"What happened?"

"Oh my God, she just runs out from her wedding- with the Uchiha's!"

Sakura's mum looked around panicky. She stepped forward and was about to run after Sakura when someone grabbed her wrist.

"What…" Sakura's mum turned immediately, looking into her ex-husband's bright emerald eyes.

"Let her go. She should choose whom she wanted to be with for the rest of her life. Don't ever let her repeat the mistakes we both had done." He said, adding a small and sincere smile behind.

She stared at him, and slowly returned her arm back to her side. "You're right… we should let her go…" Sakura's mum said as she watched the commotion between the Uchiha's side and the Haruno's side.

"She's all grown up already…"

0o0

Sakura was trying to take out her left high heels as she hopped with the other leg. She turned to find Sasuke, who was still looking bewildered and confused as he was rushing to get his car.

"Naruto. What are you waiting for?" Sasuke gritted his teeth as he looked through the windshield.

"He's trying to start the car… unless you thought he was making out with it…" Sai said, standing beside Sasuke as they both were looking through the windshield at Naruto. Sasuke gave a disgusted look while Naruto glared at him. "Shut up!"

Sakura took the opportunity to run as fast as possible as she rushed outside of the church and out onto the street. There were no cars in sight as she started waving frantically for a cab to appear magically.

That was when a familiar vehicle approaching her way, it was not Sasuke's, but instead it was Deidara's.

The car stopped right in front of Sakura as she bend down and looked at Ino who was unwinding the windshield.

"Didn't I tell you before? Hailing a taxi is too risky." Ino winked.

Sakura gave a huge smile as she quickly scurried into the car at the back. "Where are we going?" Deidara asked, wanting to make sure while sakura slammed the car door shut.

"The airport! I want to get to the airport! This instant!"

Deidara chuckled; stepping hard on the accelerator and going full speed ahead.

"Where's Hinata?" Sakura asked frantically.

"Hinata are distracting Naruto and Sasuke who would be coming after us. You know Naruto is dumb, he'll never understand whatever I say so I did not bother explaining to him why you probably ran away. And of course, Sasuke is his best friend, he would helped him to get his bride back."

Sakura looked back at the church and bit her lips, feeling annoyed.

'_I'm sorry… Mum, Dad…Hinata and Naruto…'_

0o0

"Hinata… are you sure that they had turned left a while ago?" Naruto asked the Hyuuga heir who was sitting behind at the passenger's seat. Sasuke was looking at her impatiently, wanting an answer out from her immediately.

Hinata does not want to lie to Naruto, but she have to help her best friend. Her life depends on this, and getting Naruto is now second on her list. She bit her lips and nodded. "Yes, she had turned l-left." Hinata calmly said.

And for the past half an hour, Naruto had been driving around circles and circles while Deidara had reached their destination.

"Sakura go!" Ino shouted as they stopped the car right outside the entrance.

Sakura stepped out of the car and looked back, glancing at the two blondes. "Thank you, I-"

"Sasori hates to wait, remember the three things I told you about him? Get going before he really leaves yeah!" Deidara waved her off as Sakura nodded, giving a genuine smile and run off.

She ran and ran, holding onto the gown and the two shoes in another hand.

"Sasori! Don't Go!"

Sakura needs him, she should have run after him on that rainy day, she should have run out from the church when she seen the ring. If only she have a time machine, if only everything could turn back to the way it was…

"I can't live without you!"

"I need you!"

Everyone was looking at her as she continued running down the hall. She was searching for a redhead, but the chances were so slim.

"Sasori!"

Even when he heard her from a distance, Sasori probably would not approach her. He was hurt from all the things she had done. She's foolish. She's stupid. She's dumb. Why did she not realize Sasori's love for her?

"Sasori…"

Sakura slowly stopped running and stood in the middle of the entire crowd as she started to hiccup uncontrollably. Everyone in the airport was still looking at her weirdly, pointing fingers at her and murmuring to themselves. Sakura started sobbing like a kid, all the make-up was ruined and her hair was in complete mess, but Sakura did not care, all she wants was to have Sasori back.

She fell on her knees and dropped the two shoes on the ground, covering her face with both of her hands. Her heart was broken. She thought she could go on with the wedding and forgets about Sasori even when Deidara had brought to ring for her to see.

She could not. She could not do it.

"D-Don't go… P-Please…"

She really loves him, but she was too foolish to only realize that now.

"_Sakura. Tell me. You said you love me. What makes you think you love me?"_

What is the reason? Why does she love him?

If Sasori were to ask again, she probably has the answer now.

It was because it was he who made her understands what does being loved feels like. It was he who pulled her back from her lonely and cruel world. He taught her what does love means. He can give him the protection and the love she all. And perhaps he could be the one to fulfill her dream, with or without children.

All these while, she was just afraid to admit she have fallen in love with Sasori because she thought, she still likes Sasuke when she does not anymore.

She _loved_ Sasuke. She _loves_ Sasori.

She wants to spend the rest of her life with this redheaded fellow who she had unknowingly saved 20 years ago.

But the problem is, will fate allow them to meet again?

_To be continue_

* * *

Author's Note:

I'm totally sorry for such a long update. Boooohooooo… This chapter is awfully hard to write, and some parts were not linked up properly, ARGH.

And I don't like this chapter D:

Thanks to all reviewers, including the ones that I did not have time to reply, and every single one of you who is reading this story. I love you!


	20. May I Love You

[ May I ]

_May I love You_

_"If she wore the ring…"_

_Deidara looked at Sasori, who was standing at the corner in the lift as it was ascending down to the ground floor. Deidara tilted his head, focusing on what Sasori had said instead of the weird classical music that was playing in the lift._

_Sasori's grip tightened around his luggage handle. His brown eyes were fixed on the ground, debating if he should continue. Deidara didn't spoke, but was just secretly fiddling with the ring in his pocket; the redhead was still rather oblivious that Deidara had "stole" his ring._

_"If she really wore the ring… I promise I'll marry her, protect her, treasure her, and love her like no one else in the world." He spoke and the lift door immediately opened once he finished his sentence._

_Deidara blinked, only running after at the redhead for a second as he briskly walked out of the elevator as soon as it descended on the floor._

_"If… only she wore the ring…"_

Deidara looked up lazily as he stared at Sakura who had just barged in from outside, flipping through a folder in her hand before slotting it into the cabinet again, taking another one again and flipped through quickly while a phone was stuck in between her cheeks and shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry, but hold on…" Sakura sighed before putting the file back into the cabinet after another failed attempt to find the correct document for her client.

"My apologies, could I call you back later once I find it? I'll call you back again, Mrs. Pocky." Sakura immediately closed her phone and sighed, wiping an imaginary sweat on her forehead.

"Mrs. Pocky? That's a pretty old client Sasori had years back…" Deidara jolted from his seat once he realized his mistake.

Sakura only turned to smile at him. "Really?"

'_I probably shouldn't have mentioned his name yeah…' _Deidara slumped back into his seat.

Sakura realized Deidara's reaction before cutting in. "She wanted to look through Sasori's design again. And I was finding the file under her name." Sakura looked at the cabinet before looking back at the blonde. "But I couldn't find it."

Deidara blinked. It had been almost a year since he had last heard Sakura mentioning his name. And it was surprising for Sakura who didn't even break a sweat when she mentioned his name _Sasori_

"Sasori had told me before he leaves…" Deidara paid very close attention to Sakura's calm reaction before deciding to continue. "He said he left a box of old files at home in his bedroom, maybe if I have time, I can get it for you yeah…" Deidara looked at the clock but Sakura shook her head immediately.

"Remember, you have something on in half an hour. I can pick it up myself." Sakura said, looking at the clock as well, turning back immediately and looked at Deidara.

They both were in an awkward silence as they stares at each other, waiting for something to happen.

"Deidara… I don't have the key."

"Oh… yeah…"

0o0

Sakura slotted in the keys nervously and entered the house, shuffling the shoes inside neatly before tiptoeing into the house.

It was still as neat and tidy, as if Sasori was still at home, cleaning up whenever there was any speck of dust.

'_Probably the work of Deidara and the gang that helped him clear up when there was time for them.'_

To be honest, it was the second time she had entered Sasori's house. The very first time was Konan who took her here. It was a week after her run-away wedding.

They sat on the sofa; talking about all sorts of jokes and funny things the gang had done for the past few years. But mostly, all the conversation was just about Sasori; Sasori alone.

_"He likes you. He really does."_

_"I know."_

_"What do you mean by you know?"_

_"Cause I like him too."_

Sakura locked her gaze at the bedroom door and quietly approached it, turning the doorknob and entered his bedroom. She took a tiny peek to actually see if there was anyone in there. That was just a natural habit for Sakura, she have to peek into the bedroom or any room excluding her own bedroom even when she knows that there's no one inside.

_"This is his bedroom. Just don't tell him I let you in here." Konan pushed the door opened. Sakura smiled and stepped closely behind her. "Sakura, let's do something I never got a chance to do in Sasori's room before." Konan nudged her, walking further into the bedroom._

_Sakura followed obediently but asked out of curiosity. "What is it?"_

_"Let's play, pillow fights!"_

_"EH?"_

Sakura sighed, walking into the room and looked over his neat desk.

_"He- He once told me this." Konan threw the pillow at Sakura but she caught it successfully._

_"What is it?" She asked._

_**"I would really take her away and marry her, if I know she loves me as well."**_

_"He really told me that." Konan said, sitting on the bed exhausted, taking a pillow and placed it on her lap._

_Sakura just shrugged, giving a wavering smile. "I told him before, but he doesn't believe me."_

Sakura noticed a box on the table, which she had not noticed when she came into the room with Konan. She approached towards the box to find a sticky note pasted on top of it, written in a neat handwriting that says, "Work files."

Sakura smiled, taking out the cover and rummaged through it. She slowly hummed to her favorite music before taking the correct file and smiled to herself.

"There it is!" She exclaimed to herself. On the cue, her phone began ringing as she fished out her phone quickly from her bag and answered.

"Deidara?"

"Sakura come back to the office now yeah!" Deidara shouted through the phone.

Sakura could only winced at the volume before returning back to the call. "What's the matter?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Just come back! Something had happened!" And with just like that, he cut his call before Sakura could ask what on earth was going on.

Sakura grasped on her phone tightly before running out of Sasori's house.

0o0

He stood there, standing against his old workroom door and stares at the empty room, with a huge table right in the middle and a small stool by the side.

It's not the same anymore…

_He's_ back. The _redhead _was back. _Sasori _was back.

It's been a year and a half since he left town and went to Sunagakure; somehow to escape from the wedding held between the Haruno and the Uchiha. But even though that's the main reason why he fled, he still couldn't take the _news _that hit him pretty well until now.

_"Sasori- You…" Deidara stared at him wide eye._

_Sasori just gave a smirk. "I'm back." He merely said, as if it was nothing to him._

_The blonde bit his lips and took in a deep breath. He's not going to shout or say anything since it was Sakura's job to do so. Deidara just looked into Sasori's eyes as he walked from behind his desk and towards Sasori who was standing against the glass door with his luggage by his side. Deidara only take another deep breath and sighed._

_"Sasori… It's too late yeah… " Deidara looked down, feigning sadness._

_"Sakura is married to Sasuke now. She had quitted her job a few months ago. Of course, she's now rich, why does she need to work yeah?"_

Sasori stared at the empty stool. He could recall the pink-haired girl who sat there, doing her work seriously, sometimes crazily singing to herself and accidentally falling asleep during work.

But he loves those memories. He wished that they could come back to him again.

_"I'm going off now." Deidara looked back, giving a pat on Sasori's stiff shoulder. "Sorry, yeah. I have a meeting going on later. I'll leave the front door there as it is and come back as soon as possible." Deidara took a deep breathe before walking out of the room and down the stairs._

_Sasori was trying to get used of the news. He came back because he thought he could maybe forget everything. But probably he was wrong…_

_"Where's Sakura?" He said, stopping Deidara on his track._

_Deidara just shrugged, glancing at the redhead behind his shoulder. "Probably taking another flight for their twelfth honeymoon yeah." Deidara said._

Sasori leaned against the doorframe, ruffling his red hair between his fingers.

"Mrs. Uchiha Sakura…" He spoke out loud. But before he knew it, he smirked; he just couldn't control himself, but he had to just say it out loud.

"It sounds so weird."

0o0

Sakura stepped out from her newly bought car right in the middle of the parking road, locking its door immediately and rushed across the road, looking worriedly at the building from a distance.

'_I wonder what happen? Did the kitchen caught fire? Did a burglar attacked Deidara before he left the office? What the heck happened?'_

Sakura grabbed on the folder ran towards the building, to stand just in front of the glass door. She pushed it opened, not so surprise that it wasn't locked as Deidara might be inside.

'_No burning smell...'_ Sakura sniffed, while looking around the room_. 'No signs of any burglary…' _Sakura then looked up the stairs and slowly approached it, walking up and counting every step she took.

The stairs creaked every step she took. She looked to her left to find someone in the office at the second floor. He pushed the glass door open and stepped inside.

"Deida-"

No, she can't see the familiar blonde that was always sitting lazily behind his desk, playing with his clay to get some inspiration.

But instead, her heart skipped a beat.

"S-Sasori." Sakura gasped, the folder in her hand began trembling.

This feeling, it was familiar.

"Sakura." Sasori said in surprise after turning around to find the girl standing across the room

How long had he last seen her?

'_Deidara you brat… didn't you told me she was with Sasuke?' _Sasori looked at the ground before having the courage to look at Sakura.

It's been 15 months, 18 days and probably 3 hours since he had went to Sunagakure. If only she can look how many minutes and seconds on the clock right on the wall, she could definitely calculate how long it had been since she last seen him.

"Sakura…" He said again.

Sasori slowly stepped forward while Sakura still remain rooted on the ground, unable to move at all. Sakura wanted to speak but her head was in a mess.

"What on earth…" Sakura could only whisper.

But when Sasori stopped walking after standing right in front of Sakura, she finally got back her voice as she took Sasori's hand surprisingly.

"I was just picking up a file. I'm going to quit once you come back anyway. So I guess I can leave everything here now…" Sakura pushed the file into Sasori's hand before letting go immediately. "I should get going now."

But something shiny immediately caught Sasori's sharp eye.

The shiny band that was worn around Sakura's ring finger, that familiar and unmistakable ring…

"That ring…" Sasori widened his eyes, before reacting fast and grabbed Sakura's wrist, stopping her from going anywhere.

"I-Is there a problem?" Sakura stuttered, surprise with Sasori's touch and she looked at him.

"That ring…" Sasori repeated, pulling her back to her original position and lifted her hand to inspect the ring she was wearing all along.

It was the ring that Sasori had abandoned long ago.

Sakura pulled away, rubbing the ring in between her two fingers. "Is there a problem with it?" Sakura scowled slightly angrily.

"Isn't that… my ring? I've bought it, intending to give it to you. But I didn't have the chance… and courage." Sasori raised his eyebrow, wanting to look at the ring Sakura was wearing again.

"What do you mean? This ring doesn't belongs to you- I mean, I could just bought this at any flea market, or… or-"

"There's actually the date when I had confessed to you the other day craved on the ring." Sasori looked at the ring once again to get all the confidence that he had lost before daring himself to look in Sakura's eyes. "I doubt you can buy that anywhere." He challenged her.

"What?" Sakura looked at her ring in disbelief. "How could it be? I've been wearing it for so long, how could I have not notic-"

"Actually, if you really wanted me to crave the date for you, I could." He cut in.

Sakura froze.

'_Damn, I got tricked!'_

Sakura immediately blushed and looked away. "Fine, I admit. It's yours." Sakura gritted her teeth before glaring at Sasori.

"But why did you leave? How could you just disappear into mid air when I really needed you? A-and went missing for more than a year! I really hate you!" Sakura pushed Sasori away and stepped back, glaring at him for the first time.

"Because-"

Sakura immediately raised her arm and gave a stop sign in front of Sasori's face before he could continue. Her head hung low and both of her eyes close.

"Do you know? How much I've been waiting? How much I've been thinking of you? How much I've been telling myself not to give up?" Sakura opened her eyes and stared right at him.

"If you want it back so much, I could just take it ou-" Sakura put down her hand and was about to pull the ring out from her ring finger when Sasori stopped her immediately, taking her arm.

"Don't. Don't ever do that." He muttered, his brown eyes seemed to be almost hurt by what Sakura was about to do. Sakura bit her lips and looked away. Her eyes were watery like she could burst out crying anytime.

"When I wanted to give up on everything, you are always in my mind, and I just can't get rid of you in my head. Do you know how irritating it is? Do you know how much I've been suffering because of you? I-I really… reall-"

But before Sakura could respond, Sasori cut in and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him, only to have his lips against Sakura's soft ones. Her hand was rested on Sasori's chest while she was too stunned to move at all. The file in Sasori's hand dropped right on the floor, completely forgotten.

"_If she really wore the ring… I promise I'll marry her, protect her, treasure her, and love her like no one else in the world."_

Sakura's eyes widened for a mere second, trying to register what the hell was happening now. But before she knew it, she slowly closed her emerald eyes just like Sasori who already did, and slowly lift her other hand and laid it on his chest, enjoying the very moment.

And for a long time, even if the famous Kishimoto were to come into their office, she wouldn't ever turn her head.

0o0

"What the heck are you waiting? Kiss her!"

The voice back form the seats was unmistakably Hidan's, but Sakura tried to ignore it and prevent herself from blushing any further. The priest had already finished his speech and both had already exchanged their rings, only waiting to be given the signal for them to kiss.

Sasori slowly looked up and faced the beautiful bride that was standing in front of him; who was already blushing with everyone that was urging them to kiss.

But Sasori didn't seem to care as his main focus was only on the red-faced Sakura. He took the white bridal veil and put it behind Sakura's head, bending down slightly and gave a warm kiss.

Everyone was clapping, shouting and whistling as the two unwilling to broke their kiss. Konan and Pein stared at each other, only smiling at each other as they looked at the two newly weds, reminiscing their wedding as well.

Deidara only slightly blushed as he observed Ino, who was clapping and cheering as loudly as possible for her best friend.

He hadn't made a move though. But someday, the blonde promised he would.

Naruto could only sighed, oblivious to the shy Hyuuga heir standing beside him. "When could I be the next one standing there?" He gave a shook of his head and sighed again. "I'm getting old already… cooking all those bowls of Ramen everyday." Hinata immediately lowered her head and blushed, playing with her fingers quickly.

"Hinata, are you alright?" Naruto slightly panicked as he observed her reaction.

The Uchiha standing beside Naruto rolled his eyes, slightly pitied Hinata who actually fallen for his dumb friend.

No, not Itachi of course, but it was actually Sasuke.

Karin and Sasuke had broke up for some odd reasons a few months before Sasori came back, but Sasuke didn't came back and wanted Sakura to be his girlfriend again. The Uchiha just came over and said sorry to her. Even though he knew nothing much could be mended when Sakura's heart was broken because Sasori left, he still really wanted to apologize to Sakura for how much he had hurt her from the very start.

And then a few months after Sasori had come back, Sakura had personally went over to the Uchiha estate and gave the invitation card to him. And surprisingly, he accepted it, although he seemed unwilling to take the card, he still went for the wedding after a slight persuasion made by Itachi.

But now everyone was there, including Sasuke. And he actually clapped and smiled; sincerely, genuinely and really wishing them the best.

Not only Sasuke of course, standing right beside him was all of Sakura and Sasori's friends; Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Deidara, Itachi and the rest of the gang were clearly invited.

The charming redhead and the beautiful cherry blossom were looking over at everyone, smiling, as they were finally together after all these tough situations they had.

Everyone was roaring with laughter, clapping and whistling throughout the moment. Even though a few don't have the complete happy ending in their story, they knew someday it would come, just like how Sasori and Sakura's story ended.

And so in the end, every single one that were there were happy with the wonderful ending that was given to Sasori and Sakura to complete their story…

…But perhaps, not as overjoyed as Kakuzu, who was secretly smiling to himself at the corner; Feeling relieved than ever as everyone had forgotten about the bet they made at Itachi's engagement party almost two years ago.

_End_

* * *

Author's Note:

Yesh! I'm married to Pocky! I know it's really random to have Mrs. Pocky as a character, but I really can't think of any more names D:

But anyway! I've finally completed this~ Nice? Or shall I make some alternative endings or something?

At first I was having second thought if I should delete this story halfway and get on with my life or something, but than gradually, all those reviews that kept pouring in, telling me how wonderful the story is and that I should update real soon; all of them are awesome and I really can't say how much I love all of you!  
Thanks to those people who reviewed, faved, put this as alert, unfaved or had un-alert this story, thank you very much. I love you.

I could totally write a whole essay filled with dedication for all of you, but I shall keep my limits. Thank you everyone for reading till the end! And oh, for those SasoSaku haters out there (Which is mostly impossible for them to read this, but anyway…) there's three/two words I want to tell you all.

SasoSaku DUH!

(!) Last thing! Just want to know, which chapter is your most and least favorite of all?

Thank you all once again! I shall cry in my sleep now.

-OmgItsPocky


	21. May I be your Valentine?

Author's Note:

It's been like one year ever since I've completed this and I could still clearly remember how I was so excited in updating each and every chapter every single day :')

I had always wanted to post an official epilogue to surprise you guys with it, but I was so damn lazy to do so. I was also planning a Ferris Wheel theme for my valentines' day one shot but I'm like, "Heck it, let's just make a May I valentines' day one shot instead."

And here it is! It is quite rush and lame but I hope you still like it :)

* * *

[ May I be your Valentine? ]

"Really? Nothing at all?" Ino gasped in disbelief.

Sakura looked away and started fiddling with her thumb like how her best friend, Hinata would do whenever she was nervous.

"Not even a damn bouquet of flowers?" Ino shook her head.

"Yes there is!" Sakura's eye brightened up as she leaned her body forward and sat both of her arms on the café table. "He bought me flowers."

"When?" Both Hinata and Ino said in unison.

"When I had this really high fever and was sent to the hospital." Sakura gave a small pause, as if this would add to the suspense. "He bought me a bunch of flowers the next day."

"Sakura." Ino said in a deadpanned voice. "I mean for your birthday, or maybe Valentines' Day. The flower's reason are supposed to be romantic!"

"Birthday? The first birthday I spent after my marriage was with you guys." Sakura spoke as if she stated the obvious. "Same as the second year too."

"After that? Did anything happen on the two days of your Birthday bash?" Ino made exaggerated gestures.

"He sent me home after the party." Sakura sounded as if she was speaking to a dumb person.

"Just like that?" Hinata gave a disappointed smile.

"Well..." Sakura started to fiddle with her thumbs again. "For the second year, we were both quite drunk and we... you know… it was raining and we're both a little hot..."

"Oh my gosh." Ino squealed. "Details!"

"Ino!" Hinata hushed as she clasped her cheeks with both of her hand.

"It's my privacy and I will not share it." Sakura gave a triumphant smirk.

"Alright, details set aside." Ino rolled her eyes as she starting stirring her spoon in her tea. "And ideas, Hinata?"

"Maybe you should give him some hints th-that you wanted to spend your day with him, alone." Hinata suggested.

"I agree." The blonde nodded.

"But I don't know how." Sakura muttered.

"Maybe I can give you a list." Ino rummaged through her bag and fished out a paper and a pen. "This might work." The blonde said proudly as she uncapped the cover smartly.

The other two friends glanced at each other doubtfully and shook their head.

0o0

"Have you bought anything for Sakura yeah?"

"What for?" Sasori glanced up from his papers before picking up the calendar from the table. "It's not even March. Her birthday is not approaching."

"Idiot." Deidara stood up from his seat and tapped onto the date for tomorrow. "Valentine's Day yeah."

Sasori frowned before he sat the calendar back in silence.

"Nothing at all?"

"You don't have to appreciate someone on certain fixed dates. You can do that anytime." Sasori said in a wise tone.

"May I ask when is your _anytime_?"

Sasori sent an annoyed look towards the blonde as the latter decided he should stop talking about it.

"Let me tell you what I have planned for Ino." Deidara closed his eyes as he went back to his seat. All Sasori did was to look down at his incomplete paperwork without responding to what Deidara had said.

"I've booked a seat for two in her favorite restaurant. And then I would bring her for a boat ride just for the two of us to view the magnificent view and enjoy some wine-"

"And to propose? A splendid idea indeed."

"What?" Deidara stopped and stare at the redhead who calmly stared back.

"Just a week ago, I saw a small box on the table and being a little curious, I opened it to realize it was a ring.

"You-" Deidara took in a deep breathe and glared at him. "Well, at least I have prepared everything beforehand."

"Wow, a picture of you stuttering and falling into the river just flashed across my mind." Sasori shut his eyes as his lips curled up into a smirk.

"What the-" Deidara stopped and decided to just ignore Sasori's mind games. "I'm not doing anything yet. But unlike you, I'm going to put in the effort to show her how much I appreciate her by spending my time with her tomorrow."

The redhead just rolled his eyes, trying his best not to bother with his friend anymore. After a few minutes, Deidara started packing up to leave as he already promised to fetch Ino home.

But something made Deidara stopped at his track when he was about to reach the glass door as he whirled around to speak for one last time.

"I'll see you around. And I expect you to at least buy some flowers for your wife. Or I'll do it for you if you don't."

Sasori took a deep breath and forced himself not to throw his mug at him.

0o0

"Here's your breakfast." Sakura beamed as she settled a plate of bacons and eggs right in front of Sasori before placing her own set of breakfast on the table. After Sakura had started eating while reading something from her phone, Sasori finally braced up the courage to calmly speak to her while he played with his food.

"Today is Valentine's Day."

Sakura's eyes brightened up as she looked up from her phone. "Yes, it is." She gulped down her food in anticipation.

"I'm working overtime."

Sakura blinked but as she ate her sunny-side up egg in two bites in order for her to have some time for her to think. "But last week I've checked the schedule for you. You are free after 4." Sakura informed.

"Someone called in and wanted to have his order ready by tomorrow." He explained briefly before setting his plates aside and stood up.

"Do you need help? I can come over this afternoon." Sakura asked, pushing her food aside while watching her husband go.

"It's fine." Sasori called out as grabbed his shoes from the cabinet and tucked them in. For a moment of silence, he spoke again. "As I was saying about the Valentine's Day."

"Yeah?" Sakura inclined her head, her hopes were slightly lowered now.

"How do you plan to celebrate it?" Sasori stood up and adjusted his collar, just to give Sakura some time to think.

"Maybe a romantic dinner with nice view for just the two of us. And then there would be a bouquet of 100 roses and a bottle of champagne at the side of the table. And maybe a violist playing a song right beside our table…" Sakura could have continue blabbering on, but she realized Sasori was staring at her with a small grin. She huffed in defiance.

"Your imaginative skills hasn't change even after two years."

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura made a face, her arms crossed and her eyes almost glaring at him.

"I'm off to work now." Sasori messed up his hair in a fashionable way and proceeded to the door.

Sakura's softened her eyes as she followed her way out with Sasori until she saw him entering his car. "Bye! Have a safe trip."

As Sakura went back inside the house after hearing the car engine started, she gave a soft sigh while she looked around the empty house. After a while, she decided that spring cleaning would be a great idea to spend the rest of her time on a Valentine's Day.

0o0

"I was searching for you in the entire bookstore and I never thought you would be standing her and reading some book that is-."

Sasori slapped the book shut and turned to stare at the stalker-blonde who was leaning against the bookshelf Sasori had just took the book from. The blonde managed to catch a glimpse of what Sasori was reading before he could hide it from him.

Before Sasori could react, Deidara grabbed the book and read the cover out loud. "58 ideas for a perfect date." And soon, he started chortling behind his hand loudly while Sasori just stare plainly at him.

"Give me back." Sasori drawled.

A few disapproving glares from a few customers were directing at Deidara but he ignored all of it.

"I can't believe this yeah. Back then when you mentioned the book about 1001 ways of torturing your worker, I could actually picture you reading it. But this…" Deidara lifted up the book to stare at the cover before he started laughing again.

Sasori snatched the book and placed it back into the shelf. "I'm just reading through it, you moron."

"So what idea did you get?" Deidara stifled a giggle.

Sasori rolled his eyes and walked away.

"Flowers are the best yeah." His best friend followed closely behind him.

"Stop advertising your girlfriend's store." Sasori stopped and browse through a business magazine. "It's too original anyway." He managed a whisper.

"I see that someone wants to be creative yeah." Deidara stroked his chin.

"Shut up."

"I can give you a few pointers."

"Speak again and I'll drill your teeth."

"… Stubborn old man."

0o0

"Overtime? He's really getting on my nerves now." Ino started cracking her knuckles before resting her arms on the counter in her flower shop. It was in the middle of the afternoon and instead of going out to have her lunch, Sakura surprised her by bringing cakes over to her store so they decided to spend their time having tea while chatting before Ino's break ended.

"I can't blame him, he has work to attend to."

"He has a wife to attend too." Ino emphasized. "And did you try out the lists of methods I gave you?"

"Ino. I threw them away." Sakura gave a withering look.

"What?" Ino hollered. "How could you?"

"Wear lingerie to eat breakfast. Are you insane or just stupid?"

"Isn't that how you should spend your Valentine's Day? After that hot sex, he'll be in your clutches and you can do whatever you want." Ino cackled.

Sakura was slightly worried about Deidara's future.

"I wouldn't want to get disappointed if Sasori actually rejected me early in the morning." Sakura managed a laugh.

"You alright?" Ino raised an eyebrow as her tone started getting serious. The blonde just continued staring at Sakura until her laughter died down.

"Why wouldn't I?" Sakura waved off Ino's doubt. "Maybe this is for the better. I'm training to get over Valentine's Day alone so that it would work out better in the future."

"You don't have to phrase it like that." Ino patted on Sakura's hand.

"I was just joking." Sakura smiled.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Alright enough of these talks." Ino rested her chin on top of her palm. "Have you been noticing how weird Deidara been?"

0o0

Sakura never expected much from Sasori since he had always fulfilled his role as a loving husband in her opinion. Spending as much time with her, watching some movies or having dinner together during weekends. It was not like he neglected her or anything, but on such a special occasions other than her birthday or wedding anniversary, Sakura wished she could spend some more time with him to celebrate.

But Sakura would never blame Sasori for the lack of romance genes he had.

He was never good at romantic stuff compared to other guys she met, for example Deidara. He knew when was the exact time to present flowers, gifts or saying some cheesy words to each other like how Sakura had heard from Ino about Deidara. Sakura really wished that the blonde could at least teach his redhead best friend a thing or two about romance.

The only thing Sakura could find it more or less romantic was when they were in bed and under the covers, naked somehow. It's just simply weird to see a completely different Sasori when he's hot, rough and stuff…

Sakura sighed, trying to get rid of those dirty thoughts out of her mind while she rummaged in her pouch and scooped out her keys.

Just as she wanted to slot in the correct key, she realized the door was already ajar. Puzzled at the fact that it couldn't have been anyone else she could thought of being in her house, she pushed the door slowly and quietly as she clutched onto her pouch.

Before she could even call out to see who was the intruder or visitor, she smelt something… burning.

Sakura left the door hanging open as she tiptoed across the hall and towards the burning smell and the muffled sound of someone cursing. Right at the moment when she was about to open the kitchen door to know what the hell was going on, the door flung open by itself and a man ran out with a small cloud of black smoke surrounding him.

"Shit. Damn it."

"Oh my God." Sakura coughed hard as she waved her hands around. "What on earth happened?"

The sound of another person's coughing immediately stopped and a puzzled and innocent voice answered her instead.

"Sakura?"

As the smoke slowly cleared, the view of her redhead husband in her newly bought light pink apron that already had a few weird colored blotch all over it was staring back at her in shock. His hair that was originally in a mess was now even messier like he just came back from a war.

"What is going on?" Sakura gasped as she approached to Sasori and dusted the dirt off him, and also her precious apron.

"I didn't know what to do for you today, so I planned to cook dinner for you but I've screwed up at cooking again…"

"Sasori…" Sakura looked up at Sasori who was sheepishly looking away.

"Should have bought the flowers from Ino's but I wanted to surprise you…"

"Sasori."

"And the kitchen is now in a mess..."

"Sasori!"

He went silent for a moment when Sakura suddenly just shouted out his name. But after heaving out a huge sigh, he ruffled his hair and spoke in a tiny whisper that Sakura needed to strain her ears to hear.

"I'm sorry…"

Sakura widened her emerald eyes but shook her head desperately. "I should be the one saying sorry." Sakura grabbed onto his wrist and forced him to look at her. "I've neglected your feelings… and I didn't appreciate the things you have done for me all these while."

Sasori looked away as he stared at the mess in the kitchen. "I should have stick to buying flowers and treating you dinner instead." Sasori attempted a smile as he removed the pink apron and set it on a chair.

"Shall we spend the time cleaning the kitchen?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.

Sasori stared at the mess before looking back at Sakura, deep in thought.

"No." He gave a teasing pause. "I have an idea on how we can spend the remaining hours of Valentine's Day." Sasori grabbed onto Sakura's wrist as he lightly shoved her against a wall as he looked at her with his calm, brown eyes.

"Oh?" Sakura snickered as she slung her arm around his warm neck, resting her forehead on his before giving him a light kiss. "Tell me all about it."

_Happy Valentines' Day! :)_


End file.
